LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 
HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


LEGISLATIVE  HONORS 


TO 


JWemoutj  of 


PRESIDENT  LINCOLN. 


MESSAGE  OF  GOV.  FENTON 


TO  THE  LEGISLATURE,  COMMUNICATING  THE  DEATH  OF  PRESIDENT 

LINCOLN. 


s  0f  f  wsiteni  f  tain  in  t\t  f  egislato. 


PRINTED  UNDER  DIRECTION  OP 

J.  B.  CUSHMAN,  CLKRK  OF  ASSEMBLY. 


ALBANY: 

WEED,  PARSONS  AND  COMPANY,  PRINTERS. 

1865. 


STATE    OF    NEW    YORK. 

IN  ASSEMBLY, 
ALBANY,  April  27,  1865. 

Resolved,     That  the  Clerk  procure  four  thousand  copies  of  the  pro- 
ceedings and  remarks  in  the  Assembly  Chamber  on  the  death  of  the 
late  President  of  the  United  States,  tc  be  printed  in  pamphlet  form, 
for  use  of  the  members,  officers  and  reporters  of  the  Assembly. 
BY  ORDER. 

J.  B.  CUSHMAN, 

CLERK. 


NOTE. — Although  the  resolution  directing  the  publication  contem- 
plates only  the  proceedings  of  the  Assembly,  for  the  purpose  of  preserv- 
ing, in  an  enduring  form,  the  entire  Legislative  action  upon  the  occasion, 
the  proceedings  of  the  Senate  relative  thereto  are  also  included  in  the 

same  volume. 

J.  B.  C. 


LEGISLATIVE    HOJTOKS 


TO  THE 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN. 


MESSAGE  OF  THE  GOVERNOR. 

IN  ASSEMBLY,        ) 
Saturday,  April  15,  1865.  f 

The  private  secretary  of  His  Excellency  the  Gov- 
ernor appeared  in  the  Assembly  chamber  and  pre- 
sented a  communication  from  His  Excellency,  in  the 
words  following,  to  wit : 

EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT,  ) 
ALBANY,  April  15, 1865.    \ 
To  tlie  Legislature: 

It  becomes  my  painful  duty  to  announce  to  the 
Legislature  the  death  of  ABEAHAM  LINCOLN,  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States. 

It  is  with  emotions  of  profound  sorrow  that  I 
make  this  announcement  to  your  honorable  body. 
Such  an  event  is  a  national  calamity,  and  under  the 
circumstances  now  attending  this  bereavement,  the 
nation  weeps  with  heightened  anguish.  To  be  de- 
prived of  his  wisdom,  experience  and  counsel,  at  a 
time  when  most  important  to  return  us  securely  to 


LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 


national  peace,  fraternity  and  prosperity ;  at  a  time 
when  the  gigantic  war  which  confronted  him  at  the 
threshold  of  his  administration  is  about  drawing  to  a 
close,  and  a  final  deliverance  obtained  from  our  civil 
disturbances,  for  which  we  have  sacrificed  so  much, 
is  a  calamity  that  will  cause  the  deepest  sadness  and 
gloom  to  the  millions  of  our  land  and  to  the  friends 
of  freedom  throughout  the  world. 

Thus,  it  is  the  third  time  in  our  history,  the 
Eepublic  is  subjected  to  this  trial,  but  it  is  hoped  that 
our  good  cause  and  country,  watered  by  a  nation's 
tears  and  sanctified  by  its  prayers,  will  pass  in  safety 
through  the  ordeal  to  a  higher  life  and  destiny. 

I  have  also  to  communicate  to  you  the  sad  intelli- 
gence that  our  noble  Secretary  of  State,  an  honored 
and  favored  son  of  New  York,  WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD, 
was  likewise  the  victim  of  the  tragic  plot  of  the 
assassins,  and  now  lies  in  an  unconscious  condition. 
May  God  spare  his  life  to  the  nation. 

E.  E.  FEOTOK 

In  connection  therewith,  Mr.  VAN  BUKEN  offered 
for  the  consideration  of  the  House  a  resolution,  in 
the  words  following,  to  wit : 

Resolved  (if  the  Senate  concur),  That  the  message 
of  His  Excellency  the  Governor,  communicating 
intelligence  of  the  foul  murder  of  the  President 


MEMORY  OF   PRESIDENT   LINCOLN. 


of  the  United  States  and  the  attempted  assassina- 
tion of  the  Secretary  and  Assistant  Secretary  of 
State,  be  referred  to  a  joint  committee  to  consist 
of  five  members  of  the  Senate  and  seven  of  the 
Assembly,  to  take  order  thereon. 

The  rule  being  suspended  by  unanimous  consent, 
Mr.  SPEAKER  put  the  question  whether  the  House 

would  agree  to  said  resolution,  and  it  was  determined 

in  the  affirmative. 

Ordered,  That  the  clerk  deliver  said  resolution  to 
the  Senate,  and  request  their  concurrence  therein. 

A  message  from  the  Senate  was  received  and  read, 
requesting  the  concurrence  of  the  Assembly  to  a 
resolution,  in  the  words  following,  to  wit : 

Resolved  (if  the  Assembly  concur),  That  the  mes- 
sage of  His  Excellency  the  Governor  be  referred  to 
a  joint  select  committee  of  five  from  the  Senate  and 
seven  from  the  Assembly,  and  that  the  Legislature 
take  a  recess  until  one  o'clock  p.  M.  of  this  day. 

The  rule  being  suspended  by  unanimous  consent, 
Mr.  WOOD  moved  to  amend  said  resolution  by 
striking  out  the  words  "one  o'clock  p.  M.,"  and 
inserting  in  lieu  thereof  the  words  "  eleven  and  one- 
half  o'clock  A.  M." 

Mr.  SPEAKER  put  the  question  whether  the  House 
would  agree  to  said  amendment,  and  it  was  deter- 
mined in  the  affirmative. 


LEGISLATIVE  HONORS   TO   THE 


Mr.  SPEAKER  then  put  the  question  whether  the 
House  would  agree  to  said  resolution,  as  amended, 
and  it  was  determined  in  the  affirmative. 

Said  resolution  was  then  sent  to  the  Senate,  and 
was  returned  by  that  body  with  a  message  informing 
of  concurrence  in  the  amendment  of  the  Assembly 
thereto. 

In  pursuance  of  said  resolution,  Mr.  SPEAKER, 
appointed  as  such  committee,  on  the  part  of  the 
Assembly,  Messrs.  VAN  BUREN,  WOOD,  GLEASOST, 
J.  L.  PARKER,  REDINGTON,  WEED  and  M'CONVILL. 

At  10  o'clock  and  50  minutes,  the  House  took  a 
recess  until  11£  o'clock  A.  M. 

At  11£  o'clock  A.  M.  the  Assembly  again  met, 
when,  on  motion  of  Mr.  INGRAHAM,  it  was 

Resolved,  That  the  Superintendent  of  the  Capitol 
is  hereby  directed  to  drape  the  Assembly  chamber  in 
mourning,  and  that  the  chamber  remain  so  draped 
for  thirty  days. 

A  message  from  the  Senate  was  received  and 
read,  in  the  words  following,  to  wit : 
"To  the  Senate : 

"The  joint  committee  of  the  two  Houses  on  the  mes- 
sage of  his  Excellency  the  Governor,  this  day  trans- 
mitted to  the  Legislature,  makes  the  following  report : 

"  The  committee  having  in  mind  that  the  funeral 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN. 


ceremonies  of  the  late  President  of  the  United  States 
will  probably  take  place  on  some  early  day  in  the 
next  week,  and  that  such  day  will  be  observed 
throughout  the  whole  country  as  a  day  of  solemn 
recognition  of  the  tragic  and  awful  event  which  now 
fills  all  thoughts,  and  that  the  Legislature  will  join  in 
that  observance,  do  unanimously  recommend  that  on 
the  day  which  shall  be  appointed  for  such  obsequies, 
the  two  Houses  of  the  Legislature  do  meet  in  their 
respective  chambers  at  the  hour  appointed  for  such 
funeral  ceremonies,  and  that  the  two  Houses  being 
opened  with  prayer,  by  clergymen  especially  selected 
for  that  service,  resolutions  appropriate  to  the  occa- 
sion be  offered ;  that  the  joint  committee  of  the  two 
Houses  be  now  empowered  to  sit  again  to  draft  such 
resolutions,  and  to  report  them  on  that  day  to  the 
respective  Houses,  and  do  report  the  following  reso- 
lution : 

"Resolved  (if  the  Assembly  concur),  That  the 
Legislature,  viewing  this  unexampled  and  solemn 
event  as  demanding  a  cessation  of  legislative  busi- 
ness, do  now  adjourn  until  Tuesday  of  next  week, 
at  11  o'clock  A.  M. 

CHAELES  J.  FOLGEE, 

Chairman  Senate  Com. 

TIIOS.  B.  VAN  BUEEN, 
Chairman  Assembly  Oowi." 


LEGISLATIVE   HONORS   TO   THE 


By  unanimous  consent  the  rule  was  suspended, 
and  the  resolution  unanimously  adopted;  where- 
upon, Mr.  SPEAKER  declared  the  House  adjourned. 


WEDNESDAY,  April  19, 1865. 
REV.  DR.  HALLEY'S  PRAYER. 

Almighty  God,  Thine  is  the  power,  the  kingdom, 
the  excellency;  Thy  works  are  perfect,  and  Thy 
ways  are  judgment.  Heaven  is  Thy  throne  and  the 
earth  is  Thy  footstool;  all  nature  is  Thy  temple  and 
all  space  Thine  abode.  Deeply,  O  God !  impress  our 
minds  with  that  great  National  bereavement  that 
has  spread  such  profound  gloom  over  this  people. 
We  rejoice  that  there  is  nothing  accidental  or  con- 
tingent in  Thy  procedure.  How  miserable  should 
we  be  if  we  lived  in  a  world  which  no  Divine  Wis- 
dom presides  to  touch  its  springs  and  control  its 
movement!  But  Thy  word  sweeps  away  the  non- 
entity of  chance,  and  teaches  us  that  Thou  reignest 
— that  Thy  providence  embraces  the  vast  and  the 
minute,  the  remote  and  the  near,  regulates  every 
law  and  guides  every  operation  of  nature — that  the 
leaves  of  every  flower  are  opened  by  Thee,  that 
the  particles  of  every  dew-drop  are  collected  by 


MEMORY   OP   PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  9 

Thee,  that  every  volcano  is  convulsed  and  every 
planet  is  wheeled  by  Thee — that  every  action  and 
volition  of  Thy  intelligent  creatures,  whether  so 
great  as  to  affect  the  welfare  of  nations,  or  so 
minute  as  to  flutter  only  for  a  moment  in  our  atmos- 
phere, is  under  the  care  of  that  Being  for  whose 
inspection  nothing  is  too  minute,  and  for  whose  power 
nothing  is  too  vast.  Almighty  Father,  how  consola- 
tory thus  to  believe,  under  the  bereavements  of  life, 
that  life  is  not  a  scene  of  trembling  accidents,  and 
that  we  do  not  wander  along  its  paths  with  no  hand 
to  guide,  no  heart  to  sympathize  and  no  voice  to 
soothe  us.  "  We  will  therefore  lift  up  our  eyes  to  the 
hills  from  whence  cometh  our  help;  our  safety 
cometh  from  the  Lord,  who  made  heaven  and  earth." 
Nor  need  we  wonder,  great  God,  if  Thy  procedure 
should  often  be  wrapped  in  deepest  mystery  to  us. 
How  can  we,  with  our  puny  minds,  scan  the  counsels 
and  unravel  the  procedure  of  Thy  infinite  wisdom. 
Can  man  by  searching  find  out  God?  If  our 
children  do  not  always  understand  the  counsels  of 
their  parents,  if  our  servants  cannot  fathom  the 
plans  of  their  masters,  is  it  wonderful  that  in  Thy 
procedure,  whose  dwelling  place  is  eternity,  whose 
duration  is  eternity,  there  should  be  heights  we  can- 
not reach,  and  depths  vain  for  us  to  explore,  crooked 


10  LEGISLATIVE   HONORS  TO  THE 

things  we  cannot  make  straight,  and  rough  places 
we  cannot  make  plain  ?  We  will,  therefore,  meekly 
bow  when  we  cannot  comprehend,  and  look  forward 
to  the  sunlight  of  eternity,  where  all  darkness  shall 
be  dispelled,  and  the  connection  between  the  suffer- 
ings of  this  life  and  the  glory  to  be  revealed  shall 
be  disclosed. 

How  consolatory,  O  God,  are  these  views  of  Thy 
character  to  us  under  that  solemn  dispensation,  that 
has  struck  like  an  ice-bolt  on  the  heart  of  this 
country.  Thou  hast  removed,  by  death,  our  worthy 
and  beloved  President.  Thou  hast  called  him  from 
his  post  when  his  agency  seemed  necessary  for  carry- 
ing out  those  profound  measures  of  his  policy  for 
the  interests  of  our  country.  Thou  hast  caused  him 
to  be  struck  down  in  the  vigor  of  his  manhood  and 
the  meridian  of  his  usefulness,  in  a  manner  harrow- 
ing to  our  feelings,  by  the  pistol  of  the  ruthless 
assassin.  Almighty  God,  under  such  a  calamity  we 
will  be  still  and  know  that  thou  art  God.  We  will 
reverently  bow  to  Him  who  has  smitten  us.  We 
thank  Thee  for  all  that  thou  didst  honor  him  as  the 
instrument  of  doing  for  us.  We  thank  Thee  for  his 
distinguished  elevation,  as  an  illustration,  that  in 
our  country,  nothing  is  insurmountable  to  talent  and 
industry  and  integrity,  and  that  these  can  enable 


MEMORY  OP   PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  11 

its  possessor  to  rise  above  obscurity  of  station,  and 
occupy  the  most  responsible  positions.  We  thank 
Thee  that,  called  in  an  important  crisis  to  guide  the 
destinies  of  his  country,  he  displayed  such  wisdom 
and  sagacity  as  inspired  with  confidence  the  hearts 
of  his  countrymen  in  that  important  struggle  on 
which  they  were  entering.  We  thank  Thee  for  the 
firmness  and  energy  of  purpose  he  always  displayed, 
so  that  in  the  blackest  hour  of  his  country's  peril  he 
guided  the  helm  with  a  faith  that  never  wavered 
and  a  hope  that  never  sank.  We  thank  Thee  for 
that  spotless  integrity,  that  transparency  of  char- 
acter, that  guileless  spirit  he  ever  displayed,  leading 
even  those  who  censured  his  measures,  never  to  sus- 
pect the  honesty  of  his  purpose.  We  thank  Thee 
for  those  brilliant  events  that  transpired  during  his 
administration — the  triumph  of  law  and  order  and 
constitutional  government  over  treason  and  des- 
potism, and  furnishing  deeds  of  patriotism  and  valor 
to  which  history  affords  no  parallel.  We  thank  Thee 
for  that  manly  piety  which  he  displayed,  in  his  stated 
periods  of  daily  devotion,  his  attendance  on  the 
sanctuary,  and  that  marked  recognition  of  Thy 
providence  and  sovereignty,  which  appeared  in  all 
his  proclamations.  And  now,  blessed  God,  Thou 
hast  mysteriously  taken  him  away.  We  bow  to  Thy 


12  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

wisdom.  His  body  is  now  being  conveyed  to  the 
congregation  of  the  dead  amid  the  throbbing  hearts 
and  streaming  eyes  of  a  people  who  feel  each  as 
deeply  as  if  they  had  experienced  a  family  bereave- 
ment. "It  is  the  Lord,  let  Him  do  what  seemeth 
good  in  his  sight." 

In  the  benevolent  spirit  of  our  holy  religion,  which 
enjoins  us  "  to  weep  with  those  that  weep,"  we  com- 
mend to  Thy  paternal  sympathy  his  bereaved  partner 
and  children.  Do  Thou,  the  God  of  the  widow  and 
the  Father  of  the  fatherless,  sustain  them  in  this 
hour  of  their  desolation.  Is  there  any  sorrow  Thou 
canst  not  assuage?  any  sorrow,  the  poignancy  of 
which  Thou  canst  not  remove  ?  any  darkness,  which 
Thou  canst  not  dispel  by  a  ray  sent  down  from  thine 
eternal  throne?  Comfort  them  in  their  .mourning, 
and  may  they  feel  that  whatever  may  befall  them, 
they  will  ever  be  the  subjects  of  cherished  solicitude 
to  the  people.  And  do  Thou  bless  our  Secretary  of 
State  and  his  kindred,  who  were  sufferers  in  the  late 
awful  calamity.  We  rejoice  to  hear  encouraging 
tidings  of  their  recovery.  Do  Thou  raise  them  from 
the  bed  of  sickness,  and  spare  him,  the  intimate 
associate  and  counselor  of  the  late  President,  that 
he  may  yet  devote  the  energies  of  his  enlightened 
mind  to  the  interests  of  his  country.  And  we 


MEMOKY   OF   PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  13 

commend  to  Thy  protection  and  counsel  him  on 
whom,  by  death  of  our  President,  the  onerous  and 
responsible  duties  of  Chief  Magistrate  now  devolve. 
Clothed  as  he  now  is  with  the  prerogatives  of  office, 
may  he  be  endowed  with  all  the  necessary  graces  and 
qualifications  for  it ;  may  he  receive  from  Thee  the 
wisdom  profitable  to  direct,  and  may  he  surround 
himself  with  wise  and  enlightened  counselors,  who 
shall  aid  him  in  guiding  his  country  through  its 
present  interesting  crisis  and  carrying  it  to  prosperity 
and  glory. 

Bless,  O  God,  our  land,  the  scene  within  these 
few  years  of  such  monstrous  events.  We  thank 
Thee  for  our  brilliant  successes,  by  land  and  by  sea, 
for  the  skill  and  energy  imparted  to  our  commanders 
and  officers,  and  for  the  heroism  and  patriotism  of 
our  soldiers  and  sailors.  Bring  the  murderous  war, 
if  it  be  Thy  will,  to  a  speedy  close,  stay  the  future 
effusion  of  blood,  and  may  those  insurgent  States 
who  have  entailed  such  calamities  on  themselves 
and  others,  see  the  folly  and  wickedness  of  their 
conduct,  and  again  live  under  the  shades  of  the 
same  paternal  Government.  And  gratify  our  states- 
men, who  are  soon  to  be  employed  on  delicate  and 
embarrassing  questions,  touching  sectional  interests 
and  institutions,  to  adopt  every  conciliatory  course 


LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO   THE 


connected  with  the  rights  of  humanity  to  bring  the 
disaffected  back  to  the  sway  of  our  Government,  and 
may  the  insurgents  speedily  return  to  loyal  sub- 
jection, and  thus  peace  and  prosperity  be  enjoyed 
throughout  all  our  borders. 

Bless  all  the  States  of  our  Union  in  all  their 
interests,  agricultural,  commercial,  literary  and  reli- 
gious; increase  our  schools  and  colleges,  that  the 
influence  of  a  sound  education  may  be  enjoyed  by 
our  youth  in  fitting  them  for  stations  of  usefulness 
and  trust.  May  the  sanctuaries  of  Zion  be  every- 
where attended,  and  the  elements  of  a  sound  and 
practical  theology  be  taught  from  their  pulpits ;  give 
our  judges  justice,  and  our  executive  righteousness, 
and  may  the  gigantic  war  that  is  drawing  to  a  close, 
teach  us  more  than  ever  the  importance  of  national 
individuality,  and  thus  passing  through  this  fiery 
tribulation,  may  we  come  out,  renovated,  regene- 
rated, living  in  peace,  studying  to  promote  each 
other's  interests,  and  may  our  land  in  the  future 
enjoy  a  brightness  that  no  cloud  shall  obscure,  and 
a  serenity  that  no  storm  of  civil  dissensions  shall 
ever  disturb. 

Bless  the  State,  its  Governor ;  may  he  be  eminently 
qualified  for  every  duty  devolving  on  him.  We 
commend  to  Thee  this  House  of  Legislation.  May 


MEMOKY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  15 

every  member  bring  to  the  discharge  of  his  duties, 
an  integrity  of  mind,  a  conscientiousness  of  purpose, 
and  may  all  their  deliberations  be  conducted  for  the 
advancement  of  Thy  name  and  the  interest  of  their 
constituents. 

And  now,  Almighty  God,  impress  on  us  the  lessons 
of  this  hour.  May  the  death  of  our  beloved  Presi- 
dent not  only  affect  our  hearts,  but  lead  us  to  reflect 
and  act.  Let  us  be  preparing  for  death  as  an  event 
certain  in  its  occurrence  and  momentous  in  its  results. 
Let  us  identify  the  duties  and  events  of  life  with  the 
retributions  of  a  coming  eternity.  Let  us  believe 
the  doctrines,  obey  the  precepts,  and  be  living  under 
the  hopes  of  religion.  Then  death  will  be  the  gate- 
way of  a  blessed  existence,  and  we  shall  close  our 
eyes  on  earth  to  witness  the  shining  shore  and  tread 
the  golden  streets  of  the  New  Jerusalem,  and  dwell 
eternally  with  God.  AMEN. 

Mr.  VAN  BUREN,  from  the  joint  select  committee, 
appointed  on  the  15th,  reported  the  following  resolu- 
tions : 

Resolved  (if  the  Senate  concur),  1st.  That  the 
Legislature  of  New  York  has  received  the  announce- 
ment of  the  death  of  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  late 
President  of  the  United  States,  with  the  emotions  of 
profound  sorrow. 


16  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

2d.  That  in  the  character  of  the  illustrious  dead, 
were  united  the  patriot  and  statesman,  whose  purity 
of  purpose  and  wisdom  of  counsel  have  guided  our 
Eepublic  safely  in  its  hour  of  greatest  trial,  and 
enshrined  him  in  the  affection  of  the  American 
people. 

3d.  That  this  sad  and  afflicting  event  is  a  national 
bereavement,  the  more  to  be  deplored,  that  his 
administration  having  well  nigh  suppressed  the 
gigantic  rebellion  in  the  South,  promised,  as  its 
crowning  act  of  glory,  the  speedy  and  happy  pacifi- 
cation of  the  whole  country. 

4th.  That  the  unparalleled  crime  by  which  the 
nation  has  been  deprived  of  the  services  of  the  chief 
of  its  own  free  choice,  while  in  the  active  discharge 
of  his  duties,  is  not  only  revolting  to  the  general 
sense  of  mankind,  but  is  an  outrage  upon  popular 
government,  particularly  deserving  the  execration  of 
the  American  people,  and  consigning  to  eternal 
infamy  its  perpetrators  and  abettors. 

5th.  That  we  have  the  highest  confidence  in  the 
patriotism,  good  sense,  virtue  and  religion  of  the 
American  people,  and  we  believe,  that  even  under 
this  greatest  of  all  calamities,  they  will  exhibit  to  the 
world  their  regard  for  the  Constitution  and  Laws 
of  their  country,  their  love  of  justice  and  order,  and 
their  firm  reliance  upon  an  all-wise  and  overruling 
Providence. 

6th.  That  to  God,  who  has"  been  with  this  nation 
from  the  beginning,  who,  through  the  past  four 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  17 

years  of  terrible  war,  has  guided  and  protected  us, 
and  who  of  late,  has  so  signally  blessed  us,  do  we 
turn  in  this  day  of  our  distress,  and  humbly  commit 
ourselves  and  our  interests. 

7th.  That  while  the  country  mourns  its  loss,  its 
sympathies  are  due  to  the  bereaved  family  of  the 
deceased,  and  that  His  Excellency  the  Governor,  be 
requested  to  transmit  to  them  these  resolutions,  with 
the  expression  of  the  sincere  condolence,  in  their 
great  misfortune,  of  the  people  of  this  State. 

8th.  That  to  the  Hon.  WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD,  Secre- 
tary of  State,  we  tender  our  sympathy  in  his  suffer- 
ings, and  our  hope  for  his  speedy  recovery,  and  we 
assure  him  that  the  murderous  attempt  to  remove 
him  from  his  sphere  of  usefulness,  has  only  strength- 
ened him  in  the  love  and  confidence  of  his  country- 
men. 

9th.  That  the  Capitol  be  draped  in  mourning,  and 
the  members  and  officers  of  both  Houses  wear  a 
uniform  badge  of  sorrow  for  thirty  days,  and  that  it 
is  recommended  to  all  the  citizens  of  this  State  to 
wear  some  symbol  of  mourning  for  a  like  period. 

REMARKS  OF  MR.  VAN  BTJREN. 
MR.  SPEAKER:  I  stand  in  the  presence  of  this 
appalling  calamity  without  language  to  express  the 
emotions  of  my  heart.  We  are  living,  sir,  in  the 
midst  of  startling  and  wonderful  events.  But  yester- 
day, and  the  land  was  full  of  songs  of  rejoicing. 


18  LEGISLATIVE  HONOKS  TO  THE 

Every  eye  beamed  with  pleasure,  and  every  voice  was 
vocal  with  praise;  when  suddenly,  while  the  skies 
were  bright  everywhere,  while  the  sun  was  shining, 
while  the  birds  were  singing,  and  the  flowers  were 
budding — suddenly,  while  every  heart  was  overflow- 
ing with  joy,  the  lightning-flash  was  seen,  the  thun- 
der-bolt rent  the  air,  an  earthquake  shook  the  land, 
and  dark  clouds  swept  over  the  whole  heavens.  The 
electric  message  flashed  throughout  the  Eepublic  — 

"THE  PRESIDENT  is  DEAD!" 

The  same  foul  spirit  that  has  starved  our  prisoners 
of  war  in  swamps  and  dungeons ;  that  has  tortured 
our  wounded  on  the  field  of  battle,  and  mutilated  the 
bodies  of  our  dead,  has  culminated  in  a  crime  so 
monstrous  that  history  has  no  parallel. 

Men  looked  at  each  other  in  dismay,  and  the  nation 
staggered  under  the  parricidal  blow ! 

The  chosen  chief  of  the  people,  whose  wise  coun- 
sels and  great  heart  have  won  him  the  confidence 
and  esteem,  not  only,  but  the  warm  affection  of  his 
countrymen.  He,  who,  representing  a  loyal  nation, 
has,  through  four  years  of  bloody  strife,  maintained 
its  honor,  established  its  power,  and  brought  it  to  the 
threshold  of  Peace.  HE,  of  all  men,  to  die  a  death 
of  violence,  at  the  hands  of  a  common  cut-throat ! 


MEMORY  OP  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  19 

It  is  a  fearful  affliction,  and  more  universal,  even, 
than  the  joy  over  our  national  triumphs,  is  now  the 
great  grief  over  our  loss.  Praise  has  given  place  to 
prayer — thanksgiving  to  lamentation. 

THE  NATION  WEEPS. 

There  is  desolation  in  every  home,  sorrow  in  every 
heart.  He  was  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  nation  not 
only,  but  his  kindness  of  heart,  his  earnestness  of 
purpose,  his  purity  of  life,  his  pure,  unselfish,  devoted 
patriotism,  has  made  him  a  place  at  every  hearth- 
stone in  the  land ;  and  from  every  family  altar  his 
name  has  daily  ascended  to  Heaven. 

Sir,  what  is  the  meaning  of  this  startling  Provi- 
dence ? 

I  shall  not  undertake  to  interpret  it,  but  I  have 
confidence  to  believe  that  that  Power  which  has  sus- 
tained and  blessed  the  nation  thus  far,  will  turn  this 
dark  affliction  into  a  rich  and  permanent  blessing. 

In  all  our  sorrow,  we  have  not  forgotten  our  duties. 

THE  NATION  STILL  LIVES, 

The  government  still  moves  on — the  people  are  still 
obedient  to  law,  and  no  difficulty  or  danger  is  to 
be  apprehended.  Our  wounded  Secretary  of  State, 
saved  as  by  a  miracle,  gives  promise  of  returning 


20  LEGISLATIVE  HONOKS  TO  THE 

health ;  our  officers  of  government  are  spared  to  us, 
our  generals  are  still  in  the  field,  our  brave  soldiers 
still  stand  the  bulwark  of  the  Eepublic.  Our  people, 
with  one  voice,  gather  around  the  new  administration 
and  bid  it  "  God  speed."  The  news  from  the  national 
capital  proclaims  that  he  who  now  stands  in  the 
place  of  the  illustrious  dead,  is  worthy  to  wear  his 
mantle.  We  have  every  reason  to  believe  that  the 
country  will  continue  in  its  career  of  prosperity. 

One  thing,  it  appears  to  me,  is  already  apparent 
in  regard  to  the  policy  of  the  new  administration ; 
that,  while  the  right  hand  of  fellowship  will,  with 
returning  peace,  be  held  out  to  the  misguided  and 
misled  people  of  the  South,  their  leaders  and  betray- 
ers, those  foul  spirits  who  have  feasted  upon  treason, 
and  cruelty,  and  murder,  will  be  treated  with  proper 
severity.  Let  us,  one  and  all,  uphold  the  hands  of 
our  new  President,  and  over  the  grave  of  the  mar- 
tyred dead,  renew  our  vows  to  maintain  the  Union 
of  our  States,  and  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to 
all  who  tread  our  soil. 

Sir,  the  benediction  is  already  upon  us.  In  the 
wail  of  our  common  sorrow  all  party  strife  has  dis- 
appeared, and  I  trust  the  future,  that  is  to  be  born 
of  this  present,  will  be  full  of  the  fair  fruits  of  this 
sorrowing  communion. 


MEMORY  OF   PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  21 

Even  now,  sir,  we  can  hear  the  rustling  wings  of 
the  sweet  angel  of  Peace.  This  earnest  gathering 
speaks  to  us  from  the  great  heart  of  the  people  of  a 
common  country,  of  one  glorious  banner,  of  one 
blessed  destiny. 

The  cold  and  stormy  winter  is  melting  into  spring, 
and  the  warm  and  generous  summer  is  hastening 
toward  us.  May  we,  sir,  may  the  nation,  realize  the 
sacred  assurance  that  "  WEEPING  MAY  ENDURE  FOR 

A  NIGHT,  BUT  JOY  COMETH  IN  THE  MORNING." 

REMARKS  OF  MR.  WEAVER. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  For  the  first  time  in  our  national 
experience,  resolutions  like  those  under  consideration, 
claim  the  attention  of  the  American  people.  Sud- 
denly and  unexpectedly,  we  are  summoned  to  pause 
in  the  presence  of  the  most  appalling  event  in  our 
history.  The  President  of  the  United  States  has 
been  assassinated.  A  crime  which  has  seldom  been 
directed  even  against  the  instruments  of  despotic 
power,  from  which  the  oppressed  had  no  means  of 
relief,  except  by  acts  of  violence,  has  at  last  been 
perpetrated  upon  our  own  elective  Chief  Magistrate. 
He  who  had  passed  unharmed  through  four^years  of 
civil  war,  during  which  those  who  inaugurated  it 
doubtless  imagined  that  they  might  succeed  in  over- 


LEGISLATIVE  HONOKS  TO  THE 

throwing  the  government  of  which  he  was  the  head ; 
he,  against  whom  the  bloody  hand  of  the  rebellion 
had  not  been  raised  when  he  was  directing  the  ener- 
gies of  the  country  to  its  suppression,  at  last,  after 
the  dark  night  of  our  tribulation  had  passed,  in  the 
bright  morning  of  the  renewed  existence  of  our  gov- 
ernment, has  been  stricken  down. 

Had  the  horrid  deed  been  committed  while  yet 
treason  claimed  disputed  sway  over  that  portion  of 
our  domain  which  it  attempted  to  appropriate  to 
itself,  and  while  it  was  directing  its  deadliest  blows 
at  every  attribute  of  our  government,  though  unap- 
proached  and  unapproachable  in  infamy,  it  would 
have  been  surrounded  by  a  becoming  drapery  of 
crime,  in  guilty  harmony  with  its  own  abhorrent 
nature ;  but  perpetrated  as  it  was,  in  the  early  dawn 
of  returning  peace,  in  the  first  lull  of  subsiding  con- 
flict, and  when  the  stern  mandates  of  war  were  being 
tempered  into  generous  invitations  to  a  restored 
brotherhood,  the  victim  falls  like  the  tempest-beaten 
oak  upon  the  highest  mountain  top,  struck  and  shat- 
tered by  a  thunderbolt  from  a  clear  and  tranquil  sky, 
after  the  storm  had  passed.  Separated  completely 
from  its  relations  to  the  government,  and  standing 
simply  as  the  murder  of  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  a  citi- 
zen, in  times  less  fruitful  in  enormities  it  would  have 


MEMORY  OP  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  23 

stirred  the  popular  pulse,  but  when  the  blow  is  aimed, 
through  the  life  of  the  President,  at  the  government 
which  he  representedv  all  other  crime  pales  to  inno- 
cence in  comparison ;  for  when  the  assassin  slew  the 
President,  he  invaded  the  home  of  every  citizen,  and 
attempted  to  slay  the  first  born  principle  of  American 
liberty — the  will  of  the  majority,  which,  under  our 
political  system,  is  the  constructive  will  of  all. 

From  whatever  source  the  crime  originated,  from 
whatever  motives  it  was  committed,  it  is  an  unmixed 
calamity  to  every  section  and  to  every  interest  of 
the  entire  nation.  The  shock  itself  is  a  calamity ;  the 
example  is  a  reproach  and  a  calamity ;  but  the  con- 
sequences will  be  most  prejudicial  to  those  who  most 
need  executive  clemency. 

At  this  hour  the  remains  of  an  American  citizen 
lie  in  state  at  the  national  capital.  The  mind  that 
recently  animated  that  form  now  prostrate  in  death, 
rescuing  itself  by  its  own  native  strength  and  vigor 
from  the  relationships  of  its  early  and  humble  career, 
won  for  its  possessor  promotion  to  the  highest  civil 
and  political  position  in  the  land.  Not  yet  commis- 
sioned to  the  place,  every  citizen  had  a  right  to 
dispute  his  claim ;  once  lawfully  licensed  to  the 
office,  no  man  had  a  right  by  violence  to  disturb  him. 

This  is  not  the  time  nor  the  occasion  to  discuss  his 


24  LEGISLATIVE   HONORS  TO   THE 

conduct,  nor  to  sit  in  judgment  on  his  particular 
acts.  Whatever  diversity  of  opinion  there  may 
have  been  in  regard  to  the  policy  he  pursued,  all 
will  concede  to  his  character  an  element  of  sim- 
plicity, sincerity  and  earnestness,  guided  by  vigorous 
common  sense  and  animated  by  a  disposition  to  do 
what  he  believed  to  be  right.  If  his  judgment  was 
at  times  in  error,  if  his  selection  of  means  was  not 
always  the  wisest  and  the  best,  the  embarrassing 
circumstances  under  which  he  was  called  into  ser- 
vice, will  go  far  to  extenuate  his  faults  and  to 
propitiate  the  verdict  of  posterity. 

The  magnanimity  of  his  conduct  during  the  last 
few  days  of  his  life,  toward  the  subdued  people  of 
the  South,  contains  a  strong  appeal  for  a  charitable 
construction  of  the  earlier  and  severer  measures  of 
his  administration,  and  is  calculated  to  relieve  the 
original  doubts  of  many  in  regard  to  the  motives 
that  induced  him  to  the  exercise  of  unusual  powers, 
and  to  vindicate  the  integrity  of  his  purposes. 

The  calm  bearing  with  which  the  nation  has 
received  this  shocking  calamity,  and  the  composure 
with  which  the  highest  executive  powers  and  respon- 
sibilities have  been  transferred  from  the  lamented 
President  to  his  constitutional  successor,  cannot  fail 
to  command  the  profound  respect  of  the  civilized 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  25 

world,  and  to  inspire  new  confidence  at  home  and 
abroad,  in  the  stability  of  our  institutions.  An 
event  which  would  have  tended  to  produce  division 
and  disorder  in  other  countries,  has  only  served  to 
draw  this  people  more  closely  together,  to  renew  a 
common  vow  that  our  government,  having  passed 
through  the  severest  ordeal,  shall,  with  the  continued 
favor  of  Heaven,  survive  the  attacks  of  its  enemies, 
and  live  on  to  bless  succeeding  generations. 

REMARKS  OF  MR.  REDINGTON. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  I  need  offer  no  apology  for  occupy- 
ing a  portion  of  the  time  of  the  House  on  this 
mournful  and  melancholy  occasion.  The  lights  and 
shadows  of  life  were  never  more  forcibly  illustrated, 
on  the  one  side,  than  in  the  recent  victories  that 
crowned  our  arms,  causing  joy  to  thrill  every  patri- 
otic heart,  and  opening  up  to  our  immediate  view 
the  termination  of  the  war,  resulting  in  an  honor- 
able peace ;  and  on  the  other,  in  that  tragic  event 
that  has  deprived  the  nation  of  its  President,  clothed 
the  land  and  inhabitants  thereof  in  mourning,  and 
stricken  the  heart  of  the  people  with  grief.  But 
little  more  than  a  week  since,  upon  the  reception 
of  the  news  of  our  victories  in  this  Assembly  cham- 
ber, such  was  our  delight,  our  ecstacy,  our  gratitude, 


26  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

that  in  the  exuberance  of  the  moment  we  lost  regard 
for  parliamentary  decorum,  and  spontaneously  burst 
forth  in  acclamations  of  unbounded  joy. 

But  now,  alas,  how  sad  the  change.  We  are  here 
assembled  in  this  chamber,  draped  in  the  sombre 
hues  of  lamentation,  with  hearts  broken  with  grief, 
and  shedding  unavailing  tears  over  the  grave  of  the 
Nation's  Chief. 

This  Assembly  has  often,  heretofore,  witnessed 
discussions  that  called  forth  a  divided  sentiment, 
and  often  an  embittered  feeling,  but  we  are  here 
now,  sons  of  one  common  country,  and  lovers  of  one 
common  flag,  with  our  heads  bowed  to  the  earth  like 
the  bulrush,  and  covered,  as  it  were,  with  sackcloth 
and  ashes,  to  weep  bitter  tears  over  the  untimely 
fate,  the  assassination  of  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States. 

We  are  all  ready  to  exclaim  from  the  broken  fount- 
ains of  our  grief,  O,  that  such  a  foul  blot  had  never 
disgraced  the  American  name;  O,  that  such  a  wretch, 
capable  of  performing  such  an  appalling  act  of  wick- 
edness, could  ever  have  been  born  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  American  flag ! 

History  will  do  justice  to  the  memory  of  ABRA- 
HAM LINCOLN.  Called  to  preside  over  the  destinies 
of  the  nation  at  a  period  when  its  existence  was 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  27 

imperiled  by  open  and  violent  acts  of  treason,  he 
had,  with  an  honest  desire  to  do  right,  carried  us 
nearly  through  the  most  formidable  civil  war  that 
history  has  ever  recorded.  Many  of  the  measures 
that  he  had  adopted  for  the  suppression  of  the 
bloody  contest,  had,  in  some  instances,  as  it  was 
to  be  expected,  passed  through  the  ordeal  of  severe 
criticism ;  yet  the  period  of  time  had  arrived,  just 
previous  to  the  fatal  moment  that  so  unexpectedly 
terminated  his  life,  when  a  discerning  public  began 
fully  to  appreciate  the  patriotism  of  his  designs,  the 
honesty  of  his  purpose  and  the  magnanimity  of  his 
heart. 

Nearly  the  last  act  of  his  life,  notwithstanding  all 
the  provocations  that  would  naturally  lead  to  a  con- 
trary result,  was  meditating  acts  of  mercy  and  for- 
giveness to  those  who  had  plunged  the  land  in  blood 
and  draped  it  in  mourning.  His  magnanimous  heart 
was  contriving  some  means  by  which  the  angel  of 
mercy  could  arrest  the  hand  of  avenging  justice. 
In  the  exercise  of  these  thoughts  he  was  rapidly 
gathering  around  him  the  sympathies  of  a  large 
proportion  of  those  who  had  thought  it  wise  to 
oppose  his  administration.  How  this  matter  would 
have  finally  terminated,  God  only  knows.  At  this 
important  crisis  in  the  history  of  our  beloved  country, 


28  LEGISLATIVE  HONOES  TO  THE 

when  all  eyes  were  fastened  upon  him  with  the  most 
intense  interest  and  anxiety,  and  the  pulse  of  the 
nation  was  throbbing  to  its  inmost  centre — when 
fond  hopes,  as  we  thought,  were  soon  to  be  consum- 
mated, and  an  honorable  peace  spread  its  balmy 
wings  over  a  desolated  land — it  was  then,  even  then, 
that  a  miserable  wretch,  a  fiend  in  human  form,  had 
singled  out  his  unsuspecting  victim,  and  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  by  the  pistol-shot  of  an 
assassin,  is  laid  in  the  cold  embrace  of  death. 

Well  may  we  mingle  our  tears  together  on  this  sad 
occasion,  and  weep  with  those  that  weep,  and  mourn 
with  those  that  mourn.  Well  may  we  adopt  the  ex- 
pressive language  of  Washington  Irving:  "O  the 
grave !  the  grave !  It  buries  every  error,  covers  every 
defect,  extinguishes  every  resentment;  from  its  peace- 
ful bosom  spring  none  but  fond  regrets  and  tender 
recollections.  Who  can  look  down  even  upon  the 
grave  of  an  enemy  and  not  feel  a  compunctuous 
throb  that  he  should  ever  have  warred  with  the  poor 
handful  of  earth  that  lies  mouldering  before  him?" 

Allow  me  to  add  still  further.  How  mournfully 
are  we  taught  by  this  awful  dispensation,  that  in  the 
midst  of  life  we  are  in  death.  At  one  moment  the 
sun  may  shine  down  upon  us  in  its  meridian  splendor, 
our  pathway  may  be  strewed  with  flowers,  a  kind 


MEMORY  OF   PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  29 

Providence  may  be  conferring  upon  us  unnumbered 
blessings ;  health,  the  choicest  of  heaven's  blessings, 
may  flush  our  cheeks ;  no  disturbing  hand  to  molest 
our  peace  or  mar  our  social  enjoyment.  But  soon ! 
Ah,  how  soon,  is  this  scene  often  changed,  the  sun 
suddenly  hiding  itself  in  darkness ;  over  our  heads 
gathers  a  cloud  of  impending  storm,  and  out  of  that 
cloud  comes  down  upon  us  a  whirlwind  of  fury 
that  scatters  to  the  four  winds  every  present  or  antici- 
pated enjoyment,  and  lays  our  lifeless  form  with  the 
dead.  Such  to  us  as  individuals,  are  the  changing 
scenes  of  human  life. 

It  therefore  becomes  us  as  men,  as  legislators,  so 
to  live,  in  an  uncertain  life  like  this,  "that  if  our 
earthly  house  of  this  tabernacle  were  dissolved,  we 
have  a  building  of  God,  a  house  not  made  with 
hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens."  As  God  deals 
with  us  as  individuals,  so  he  deals  with  us  as  a  nation. 
We  may  not  be  able  to  fathom  the  mystery  that 
breaks  in  upon  us  so  suddenly  and  with  such  terrific 
power ;  we  may  not  be  able  to  discover  why  it  is  that 
the  head  of  the  nation  has,  in  this  appalling  manner, 
been  summoned  from  his  earthly  labors — why  it  is 
that  he  has  performed  his  last  service  and  exercised 
his  last  thought  in  behalf  of  his  bleeding  and  lacer- 
ated country.  But  what  is  incomprehensible  to  us  is 


30  LEGISLATIVE   HONORS  TO  THE 

fully  known  to  Him  who  ruleth  nations;  and  the 
time  will  come,  I  think,  when  even  to  our  limited 
vision,  what  is  now  incomprehensible,  will  be  made 
fully  to  appear.  All  these  things  being  so,  let  us 
never  forget  that  we  have  inherited  a  government 
that  will  and  must  exist,  whether  in  the  sunshine  or 
the  storm,  whether  in  adversity  or  prosperity,  and 
that  government  having  been  established  by  the  Al- 
mighty, will  never  fail,  being  properly  maintained 
and  supported  by  ourselves,  to  receive  His  constant 
care,  the  aid  of  His  everlasting  arm. 

REMARKS   OF   MR.  CUTTING. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  Did  I  consult  my  own  inclinations, 
I  should  remain  silent  in  the  face  of  the  appalling 
calamity  which,  in  the  inscrutable  orderings  of  an 
All  Wise  Providence,  has  been  visited  upon  the 
American  people.  Words,  however  sincere  or  elo- 
quent, are  wholly  inadequate  to  express  what  every 
one  of  us  so  deeply  feels,  and  the  silent  communing 
with  our  own  hearts  would  best  enable  us  to  read,  as 
we  ought,  the  great  lesson  which  is  now  so  solemnly 
taught  us.  But  in  taking  such  humble  part  as  I 
may  in  the  sad  ceremonial  to  which  this  day  has 
been  consecrated,  I  would  join  with  the  members  of 
this  House,  and  with  good  men  everywhere,  in  expres- 


MEMORY  OP  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  31 

sions  of  respect  for  the  memory  of  the  lamented 
dead,  of  horror  and  detestation  of  the  treason  which 
led  to  his  untimely  taking  off,  and  of  regret  that  it 
has  not  been  given  to  man  adequately  to  punish  the 
perpetration  of  so  monstrous  a  crime. 

A  few  days  since,  sir,  and  the  people  of  this  nation 
were  exultant  with  hope.  The  long,  dreary  years  of 
a  desolating  war  were  drawing  to  a  close,  and  from 
amidst  protracted  scenes  of  darkness  and  of  blood, 
beamed  forth,  at  last,  the  light  of  returning  peace. 
But  in  an  instant,  as  it  were,  all  this  was  changed. 
The  blow  of  an  assassin  has  turned  our  anticipated 
feasting  and  rejoicing  into  sadness,  and  in  the  moment 
of  victory  we  are  called  to  mourn  a  loss,  the  magni- 
tude of  which  we  are  hardly  yet  prepared  to  appre- 
ciate. 

Under  any  circumstances,  the  sudden  removal  of 
the  head  of  a  powerful  nation,  must  be  a  great  public 
misfortune ;  but  in  our  circumstances  it  is  a  national 
calamity  beyond  the  power  of  language  to  describe. 
For  this  reason  we  deeply  and  sincerely  lament  the 
death  of  our  Chief  Magistrate.  But  this  is  not  all. 
The  late  President  possessed  a  character  peculiarly 
his  own ;  and  however  men  might  differ  in  regard  to 
the  propriety  of  his  political  course,  or  the  soundness 
of  his  policy,  few  would  venture  to  deny  to  him  the 


32  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO   THE 

possession  of  qualities  well  adapted  to  win  popular 
favor.  He  was  emphatically  a  man  of  the  people. 
And  when  political  excitements  had  died  away  with 
the  occasions  which  gave  rise  to  them,  and  party 
asperities  had  been  softened  by  the  influence  of  great 
events,  the  people  honored  and  respected  him  while 
living,  and  they  sincerely  mourn  for  him  now  that  he 
is  dead. 

"  Peace  hath  her  victories,  no  less,  renowned  than  war." 

And  such  a  victory,  in  the  midst  of  arms,  had  Mr. 
LINCOLN  achieved  over  that  portion  of  the  people, 
who,  from  their  honest  convictions,  had  not  yielded 
to  all  the  measures  of  his  administration  their  cordial 
support.  While  conquering  old  prejudices,  he  built 
up  in  their  hearts  new  hopes  of  a  bright  and  better 
future.  His  ardent  desire  for  a  restoration  of  the 
old  fraternal  feeling  among  the  people  of  the  States, 
as  manifested  in  the  last  acts  of  his  administration, 
and  his  kind,  conciliatory  and  humane  policy  toward 
repentant  rebels,  with  a  view  to  this  great  result,  had 
demonstrated  to  men  of  all  parties,  the  kindliness  of 
his  nature  and  the  purity  and  disinterestedness  of  his 
patriotism.  Had  he  lived,  sir,  to  carry  out  this  policy, 
he  would  have  united  as  one  man  in  its  support,  the 
great  mass  of  the  American  people.  And,  because 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  33 

he  did  not  live  to  consummate  the  last  and  most 
glorious  act  in  the  great  national  drama,  the  whole 
country  is  clothed  in  mourning,  and  a  great  nation 
awaits  in  silence  and  in  tears,  the  passing  by  of  the 
last  sad  procession. 

As  is  known  to  this  House,  I  am  not  of  those  who 
contributed  to  elevate  the  late  President  to  his  great 
office ;  but  in  the  light  of  recent  events  I  had  come 
to  regard  him  as  one  in  whom  were  centered,  in  great 
measure,  the  destinies  of  the  Eepublic.  His  death, 
with  its  awful  circumstances,  shocked  me  no  less 
than  it  shocked  every  one  of  us  here.  I  grieved  for 
a  good  man  fallen,  and  trembled  for  the  future. 
But,  sir,  a  part  of  that  future  has  already  come.  The 
President  is  dead,  but  the  nation  still  lives ;  and  in 
the  sublime  spectacle  afforded  by  the  peaceful  pass- 
ing of  our  government  from  the  dead  to  the  living, 
we  have  an  earnest  that  all  will  yet  be  well.  It 
rests  with  others  to  finish  what  was  so  well  begun. 
If  they  are  faithful  to  the  people,  the  people  will  be 
true  and  faithful  to  them.  History  will  record  the 
virtues  of  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  and  a  restored  Union 
and  a  reunited  people  will  be  for  him  a  monument 
more  enduring  than  brass,  or  marble,  more  precious 
than  silver  or  gold% 


34  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 


REMARKS  OF  MR.  J.  L.  PARKER. 

Truly,  Mr.  SPEAKER,  a  great  man  has  fallen,  and 
the  people  mourn.  Just  as  the  angel  of  peace 
spread  her  white  wings  over  the  land,  covering  a 
country  the  future  greatness  of  which  no  mortal 
can  foresee,  and  a  people  re-united,  having  one 
common  purpose,  one  hope,  one  nationality  and 
one  destiny,  and  just  as  the  joyous  refrain  was  peal- 
ing forth  from  every  belfry  in  the  loyal  States,  and 
the  whole  country  had  been  lit  up  with  bonfires 
and  was  resounding  with  hosannas  for  that  coming 
peace,  the  President  of  the  United  States,  who  had 
contributed  more  than  any  one  man  toward  crush- 
ing out  this  foul  and  unhallowed  rebellion,  and  to 
whom  the  people  were,  as  one  man,  looking  for  a 
fair,  impartial  and  honorable  settlement  of  the  diffi- 
culties by  which  we  were  surrounded,  was  stricken 
down  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin,  and  our  rejoicing 
is  turned  into  sorrow,  and  our  hosannas  into  lamen- 
tations. 

As  a  nation,  we  are  to-day  standing  at  the  feet 
of  death,  and  gazing  with  tearful  eyes  into  the 
grave  where  our  hopes  are  sought  to  be  buried.  Of 
Mr.  LINCOLN'S  character  nothing  need  be  said.  He 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  35 

needs  no  eulogium.  His  record  is  made  up,  written 
in  characters  of  living  light.  His  great  energy,  his 
patience  in  adversity,  his  honesty  of  heart  and  his 
sublime  perseverance,  are  all  matters  of  record,  and 
as  such  are  interwoven  with  the  history  of  the  coun- 
try; and  in  after  times  when  history  and  tradition 
repeat  by  the  side  of  every  fireside  in  the  land  the 
story  of  the  hardships  and  the  sufferings  of  each  of 
the  heroes  of  this  war,  it  will  be  said  of  ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN  that  he,  too,  never  faltered.  With  a  sub- 
lime determination  to  wipe  from  our  national  honor 
the  foul  cause  of  the  rebellion,  he  was  always  consis- 
tent. Manly  and  modest  in  character,  forgiving 
and  generous  to  a  fault,  his  memory  will  grow 
greener  and  sweeter  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen 
with  every  returning  year.  Faithful  and  consecrated 
to  the  service  of  his  country,  he  pressed  on  to  the 
accomplishment  of  its  salvation,  regardless  alike  of 
the  howling  of  enemies  and  the  complaints  of  pre- 
tended friends.  As  the  star  in  the  east  guided  the 
wise  men  of  Herod  over  the  hills  and  through  the 
valleys  of  Judea,  even  unto  the  cradle  of  a  Saviour,  so 
has  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  been  to  his  people  the  star  in 
the  east,  guiding  them  over  the  hills  and  through  the 
bloody  valleys  of  this  rebellion,  even  unto  the  cradle 
of  a  blessed,  and,  as  we  fondly  hope,  a  lasting  peace. 


36  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

There  exists  not  in  the  recorded  deeds  of  the  great 
names  of  the  dead  past,  nor  yet  among  those  of  the 
living  present,  in  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  a 
grander,  more  glorious,  a  greater  or  nobler  record 
than  that  of  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN;  and  the  coming 
millions  who  are  to  people  this  vast  country  will 
honor  and  revere  his  manly  virtues  and  his  exalted 
patriotism,  as  we  to-day  honor  and  revere  the 
virtues  and  self-sacrificing  patriotism  of  our  loved 
and  immortal  WASHINGTON. 

REMARKS  OF  MR.  ANGEL. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  In  view  of  the  sad  and  melan- 
choly circumstances  by  which  we  are  surrounded, 
and  of  the  solemn  services  in  which  we  are  engaged, 
I  have  persuaded  myself  to  attempt  to  give  some 
feeble  expression  to  the  feelings  and  emotions 
with  which  every  heart  seems  to  be  filled  at  the 
awful  calamity  that  has  befallen  our  nation  and 
people. 

It  is  not  simply  the  head  of  the  nation  that  has 
been  stricken  down  by  the  assassin's  arm.  A  great, 
and  wise,  and  good  man  has  been  taken  from  us  — 
one  whom  we  trusted  and  had  learned  to  love,  and 
each  and  every  one  of  us  feels  the  sad  bereavement 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  37 

as  lie  would  the  untimely  loss  of  a  member  of  his 
own  immediate  household. 

The  highest  eulogy  of  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  is 
found  in  the  universal  gloom  and  sorrow  that  per- 
vades the  land,  and  the  emblems  of  mourning  that 
meet  the  eye  on  every  side  speak  more  eloquently 
than  any  words  the  deep  and  all-pervading  grief  of 
every  member  of  the  community.  It  was  a  great 
achievement,  in  the  wild  and  stormy  times  that 
have  attended  his  administration  of  the  govern- 
ment from  its  very  commencement,  to  have  se- 
cured the  respect  and  confidence  of  every  party 
and  all  classes  of  the  people.  It  was  a  prouder 
triumph  still,  to  have  won  his  way  to  the  admi- 
ration of  the  world,  and  the  approval  of  all  good 
and  just  men  throughout  the  universe,  under  diffi- 
culties and  trials  and  temptations  that  have  seldom 
or  never  beset  the  ruler  of  any  people.  Still  nobler 
and  more  enduring  is  the  monument  he  has  erected 
in  the  hearts  of  millions  of  his  fellow  men  —  the  poor, 
the  humble  and  the  helpless,  whose  lot  it  is  to  toil, 
endure  and  suffer,  and  who  never  yet  have  failed 
to  find  in  him  a  wise,  considerate  friend,  and  a. 
sincere  and  conscientious  champion  of  their  rights. 
By  these  he  will  be  mourned  and  cherished  while 
memory  lasts,  and  those  who  come  after  them  for 


38  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

many  generations,  will  bless  the  name  of  our  mar- 
tyr President,  and  feel  that  they  are  better  and 
happier  men  for  the  recollection  and  contemplation 
of  his  virtues  and  example. 

I  do  not  propose  on  this  occasion  to  indulge 
in  eulogy  or  biography.  The  historian  will  do 
ample  justice  hereafter  to  one  of  the  most  remark- 
able men  of  this  or  any  age,  and  to  his  treatment 
of  the  greatest  and  most  desperate  revolutionary 
movement  to  overturn  a  good  and  beneficent  gov- 
ernment the  world  has  ever  witnessed.  In  the 
struggle  now  about  to  close,  he  had  overcome  the 
arms  of  the  enemies  of  the  republic,  and  was  fast 
effecting  a  conquest  of  their  hearts.  If  anything 
more  than  another  exhibits  the  intense  and  malig- 
nant wickedness  of  the  rebellion,  it  is  the  fact  that 
it  raised  its  treacherous  arm  against  the  President's 
life,  when  his  heart  was  filled  with  forgiveness, 
with  the  words  of  pardon  on  his  lips.  It  would 
almost  seem  as  though  Providence  had  inclined  the 
actors  in  this  bloody  tragedy,  with  their  own  par- 
ricidal hands  to  close  the  door  of  mercy,  and  thus 
leave  justice  alone  to  execute  its  office.  Like  the 
hate  that  rejected  the  Saviour  of  mankind  and 
nailed  Him  to  the  cross,  the  spirit  of  the  rebellion 
scoffed  at  proffered  pardon,  and  in  its  blindness 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  39 

struck  down  the  hand  that  would  have  rescued 
them  from  the  penalties  of  perjury  and  treason. 

It  is  fortunate  for  the  credit  of  our  race,  that 
the  world  can  furnish  so  few  examples  of  such 
atrocious  wickedness,  and  in  our  dealing  with  this 
instance  of  monstrous  depravity  and  crime,  may  we 
not  expect  that  the  result  will  be  a  terrible  warning 
to  evil  doers  in  the  time  to  come,  against  any 
attempt  at  its  repetition  ? 

But,  sir,  I  do  not  propose  to  speculate  on  the 
results  likely  to  follow  the  great  crime  we  are  con- 
sidering. At  the  present  moment  we  can  only 
contemplate  the  loss  we  have  sustained,  and  mingle 
our  sympathies  with  those  who  have  been  so  sadly 
bereaved.  Next  to  the  family  of  our  lamented  Presi- 
dent, the  nation  has  most  occasion  to  grieve.  At 
a  great  crisis  in  our  history  —  at  a  moment  when 
wisdom,  prudence,  firmness,  and  a  wise  considera- 
tion of  public  measures  was  requisite  to  secure  and 
establish  peace  on  a  basis  that  could  never  here- 
after be  disturbed,  the  arm  on  which  we  leaned 
has  been  taken  from  us,  and  the  great  heart  that 
throbbed  with  love  for  those  who  had  so  deeply 
offended,  and  would  have  saved  them  from  the 
consequences  of  their  madness  and  delusion,  has 
gone  down  to  its  rest  in  the  slumbers  of  the  grave. 


40  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

God  help  those  for  whom  he  prayed  and  labored, 
for  they  will  have  need  of  kindly  offices  in  the  sore 
tribulation  yet  in  store  for  offenses  such  as  theirs. 

In  adopting  the  resolutions  presented  by  the  com- 
mittee of  this  Legislature,  we  are  but  doing  justice 
to  ourselves,  and  rendering  the  tribute  due  from 
the  great  State  of  New  York  to  one  she  loved  and 
honored  while  he  lived,  and  whose  memory  she  will 
cherish,  and  whose  virtues  she  will  emulate,  now 
that  he  is  gone. 

But,  sir,  it  is  gratifying  to  feel,  that  under  the 
sorrow  that  has  bowed  us  down,  there  is  hope  and 
brightness  in  the  future.  We  are  assured  that  the 
sun  is  still  shining  above  the  clouds  that  are  hover- 
ing over  us,  and  that  ere  long  the  light  of  peace 
and  prosperity  in  all  its  fullness  will  again  be  ours. 
Never  before  was  our  government  as  strong  as 
now,  when,  after  an  occurrence  that  would  have 
convulsed  other  nations,  and  overturned  thrones 
and  dynasties,  we  stand  unmoved,  save  by  the 
great  grief  that  fills  our  hearts ;  and  the  functions 
of  government  in  any  of  its  departments  have  not 
been  disturbed  for  a  single  hour.  With  entire 
confidence  in  him  who  succeeds  our  noble  and 
lamented  chief,  with  confidence  in  the  affection 
of  the  people  for  the  institutions  under  which  we 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  41 

live,  we  have  little  cause  for  apprehension  or  for 
mourning,  save  over  the  grave  that  is  about  to 
close  upon  the  remains  of  one  we  had  learned  to 
love  so  well.  In  a  nation's  tears  he  receives  a 
tribute  to  his  goodness  and  worth  that  is  accorded 
to  few,  and  we  all  know  and  feel  that  not  only 
ourselves,  but  the  country  and  the  world  at  large,  are 
wiser  and  better  for  his  having  lived  and  labored 
here.  In  his  great  and  good  example — in  the  purity 
of  his  life  and  the  integrity  of  his  purpose  —  he  has 
left  to  us  a  legacy  beyond  all  price,  and  takes  his 
place  in  the  records  of  our  history  by  the  side  of 
those  sages  and  heroes  whose  memory  we  delight  to 
honor,  and  of  whose  immortality  we  hope  to  partake. 

REMARKS  OF  MR.  GLEASON. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  is  no  more! 

We  gather  with  sorrowing  hearts  and  weeping 
eyes  to  pay  the  last  sad  tribute  of  respect  to  his 
memory.  His  career  of  strange  vicissitudes  is  ended, 
and  "  after  life's  fitful  fever  he  sleeps  well."  Shall 
we  mourn  for  him.  ? 


"  We  tell  thy  doom  without  a  sigh, 
For  thou  art  Freedom's  now,  and  Fame's ; 
One  of  the  few  —  the  immortal  names  — 
That  were  not  born  to  die." 

6 


42  LEGISLATIVE  HONOES  TO  THE 

His  sun  goes  down  in  full-orbed  splendor,  without 
a  cloud  to  mar  its  beauty.  His  honors  culminated 
at  the  very  period  when  death  snatched  him  away, 
and  he  has  left  but  little  behind  that  he  could  have 
desired  to  gain.  From  obscurity  he  had  come  to  be 
the  head  of  a  mighty  nation.  He  had  again  been 
chosen  to  fill  that  station.  He  had  labored  through 
long  and  weary  and  gloomy  years,  through  evil  and 
through  good  report,  to  crush  the  power  of  the 
rebellion,  and  the  end  drew  near.  Just  when  all 
hearts  were  turned  toward  him  more  than  ever 
before,  just  when  he  seemed  about  to  be  the  Presi- 
dent, in  fact,  of  the  United  States,  just  then  his 
summons  comes,  and  his  spirit  flies  to  the  God  who 
gave  it. 

How  near  he  was  to  us  we  never  knew  till  we  lost 
him.  We  were  used  to  smile  at  his  homely  ways, 
but  the  great,  noble,  generous  heart  beneath,  and 
his  keen,  vigorous  intellect,  had  won  our  love  and 
our  respect,  so  that  a  general  grief  falls  upon  all. 
Witness  for  him,  ye  weeping  mothers,  who  to-day  fill 
our  land  with  sorrow  and  mourning,  because  he  is 
not.  Witness  for  him,  ye  strong  men,  bowed  in 
agony  of  heart,  and  sighing  away  the  still  hours 
of  the  night.  Witness  for  him,  ye  marts  of  com- 
merce and  of  gain,  now  dumb  and  forsaken.  Wit- 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  43 

ness  for  him,  ye  scarred  veterans  of  the  battle-field, 
who  have  so  often  faced  death  at  the  mouth  of  the 
murderous  cannon,  and  who  have  seen  without  a 
murmur  your  bravest  and  your  best  stricken  down. 
Now,  all  unmanned,  you  pour  out  your  grief, 
which  cannot  be  suppressed.  Witness  for  him  those 
whom  he  led  out  of  the  house  of  bondage,  and  to 
whom  his  name  is  hallowed  as  their  deliverer.  Wit- 
ness for  him  the  friends  of  freedom,  the  down- 
trodden and  the  oppressed  in  all  lands,  who  have 
followed  his  course  with  earnest  wishes  and  with 
prayers,  and  to  whom  he  has  been  as  "  the  shadow 
of  a  great  rock  in  a  weary  land." 

Gone  is  now  all  censure  and  rebuke.  Gone  is  all 
partisan  approval  and  all  partisan  reproach.  His  fail- 
ings and  his  faults  lie  buried  in  his  grave  and  shall 
there  be  forgotten,  while  his  good  deeds  shall  alone 
remain,  and  alone  be  remembered.  Over  his  sea  of 
life  swept  many  a  turbulent  storm,  but  around  the 
little  green  mound  that  marks  his  resting-place  those 
storms  subside,  and  all  is  peace.  The  time,  the  place, 
the  occasion,  impress  us  with  their  solemnity,  and 
call  us  to  reverent  hearts  and  to  better  lives.  Before 
us  opens  the  grave  of  our  murdered  President. 
About  us  stand  the  weeping,  distracted  millions  of 
our  countrymen.  Far  away  float  the  dim  clouds 


44  LEGISLATIVE  HONOES  TO  THE 

of  war  and  rebellion.  Above  us  God  sits,  who  doeth 
all  things  well.  Oh,  my  friends,  let  us  heed  the 
lesson  this  event  brings  home  to  us,  and  thus  may 
we  turn  even  this  bitter  cup  to  our  own  good  and 
the  welfare  of  our  beloved  land.  Let  it  not  be  the 
fleeting  impulse  of  the  moment,  but  the  solemn, 
determined  purpose  of  our  lives.  From  his  grave 
there  comes  to  us  a  voice.  It  bids  us  forget  our 
selfish  aims,  old  jealousies  and  party  hates,  and  con- 
secrate ourselves  renewedly  and  entirely  to  our 
country  and  to  mankind.  It  bids  us  know  the  full 
value  of  our  Union,  which  has  cost  so  many  lives, 
but  never  a  more  precious  one  than  this.  It  points 
us  to  his  pure  and  upright  life,  his  simple  ways, 
his  homely  wisdom,  his  unwavering  patriotism, 
his  devotion  to  the  public  good.  It  urges  us  to 
prove  ourselves  worthy  of  the  heritage  for  which 
he  gave  himself,  and  to  stand  in  our  appointed 
place  firm  and  unyielding,  till  our  end,  too,  shall 
come. 

A  new  star  shines  to-day  in  our  firmament.  A 
new  hero  is  enshrined  in  the  temple  of  liberty. 
A  new  martyr  is  offered  upon  the  altar  of  freedom. 
The  lifeless  form  of  our  President  is  given  to  the 
tomb,  "  earth  to  earth,  dust  to  dust,  ashes  to  ashes," 
there  to  repose  till  the  last  angel  bid  the  dead 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  45 

awake ;   but   in   the   hearts   of  millions   shall  his 
memory  endure  till  time  shall  be  no  more. 

There  is  no  death !    The  stars  go  down 

To  rise  upon  some  fairer  shore ; 
And  bright  in  Heaven's  jeweled  crown 

They  shine  forevermore. 

There  is  no  death  !     An  angel  form 
Walks  o'er  the  earth  with  silent  tread, 

He  bears  bur  best  loved  things  away, 
And  then  we  call  them  "  dead." 

Born  into  that  undying  life, 

They  leave  us  but  to  come  again ; 
With  joy  we  welcome  them  —  the  same, 

Except  in  sin  and  pain. 

And  ever  near  us,  though  unseen, 

The  dear  immortal  spirits  tread  ; 
For  all  the  boundless  Universe 

Is  life  —  there  are  no  dead. 

History  has  recorded  in  letters  of  living  light  the 
names  of  those  in  all  ages,  of  whom  the  world  was 
not  worthy,  who  were  caught  up  from  loathsome 
dungeons,  from  torturing  racks,  from  blazing  piles, 
from  the  scaffold  and  the  gibbet,  to  undying  fame. 
She  has  taught  us,  by  glorious  deeds  and  glorious 
examples,  that  many  have  dared  to  die  for  humanity, 
and  in  that  death  have  found  immortality.  She  has 
made  mankind  nobler  by  such  examples  of  heroism. 
But  scan  her  pages  as  we  may,  search  all  ancient 
and  all  modern  lore,  read  with  tear-dimmed  eyes  the 


46  LEGISLATIVE  HONOES  TO  THE 

epitaphs  of  the  good  and  the  great  of  dead  genera- 
ations,  yet  shall  the  name  of  our  martyred  hero  glow 
as  brightly,  and  his  deeds  be  recorded  as  proudly  as 
any  of  that  long  procession  who  have  gone  before. 

America,  fruitful  of  heroes,  gives  another  to  their 
company.  Thank  God  for  such  a  country ! 

Thank  God  for  such  a  man ! 

REMARKS  OF  MR.  PITTS. 

When  a  good  man  dies  the  Nation  mourns. 
Doubtless  I  express  what  others  feel  in  common 
with  me,  when  I  say  that  this  is  one  of  the  saddest 
days  of  my  life.  From  my  youth  I  have  been  taught 
that  my  country  was  to  be  preferred  before  my  own 
kindred  —  before  parents,  or  wife  or  child.  When  a 
blow  is  struck  which  robs  us  of  the  Chief  Magistrate 
of  the  nation,  that  blow  robs  me  also  of  my  best 
friend.  We  can  hardly  yet  realize  the  loss  we  have 
suffered,  it  came  so  suddenly  upon  us.  A  few  days 
since,  the  booming  of  cannon,  the  rejoicings  of  the 
people,  were  heard  everywhere  throughout  the  loyal 
North,  and  flags  and  banners  and  illuminations  were 
everywhere  seen.  We  had  reached  a  time  when  we 
saw  just  before  us,  and  ready  for  us  to  enjoy,  the 
fruits  of  our  labors,  the  termination  of  the  struggle, 
the  prospect  of  an  enduring  and  honorable  peace. 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  47 

The  time  had  come  when  the  array  of  hostile  armies 
was  to  give  place  to  the  councils  of  peaceful  political 
life ;  when  the  wisdom,  statesmanship  and  sagacity 
of  our  Chief  Magistrate,  which  had  guided  us  so 
successfully  in  the  stormy  scenes  of  war,  was  to  aid 
in  restoring  harmony  and  unity  to  our  land.  With 
faithfulness  and  skill,  with  a  self-sacrificing  devotion 
and  Christian  patriotism,  that  has  never  been  excel- 
led, he  was  engaged  in  gathering  up  and  uniting  in 
one,  the  separated  strands  of  our  national  destiny, 
when  the  sad  event  we  deplore  occurred.  Just  as 
the  dove  returned  to  the  ark  of  our  national  safety, 
bearing  the  tidings  that  it  had  found  a  place  where 
to  rest  its  foot,  the  cruel  blow  of  the  assassin  took 
the  life  of  the  man  in  whom  was  centered  the  hopes 
of  the  American  people.  This  is  indeed  to  us  a 
strange,  a  mysterious,  a  mournful  occurrence.  What 
a  spectacle  do  we  this  day  present  to  the  civilized 
world !  But  not  to  dwell  upon  this,  I  remark,  that 
we  have  here  a  lesson  presented  to  us  that  we  may 
do  well  to  learn,  and  that  gives  us  hope  and  trust. 
We  see  that  this  government  of  ours,  no  matter 
what  wicked  schemes  may  be  brought  to  assail  it, 
will  live  and  is  destined  to  endure  throughout  all 
time.  We  see  that  He  whose  power  controls  and 
shapes  our  destiny,  will  not  permit  that  any  design- 


48  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

ing  arts  or  any  shock  of  treason,  shall  prevail  against 
us.  For  four  years  we  have  known  the  vicissitudes 
of  war.  The  shadow  of  death  has  been  cast  upon 
every  threshold,  and  every  hearthstone  has  its  vacant 
place ;  but  the  greatest  loss  of  all  is  the  loss  we  now 
deplore.  No  other  sadness  has  been  like  that  we 
feel,  as  we  contemplate  the  fact  that  the  grave  is 
soon  to  receive  the  mortal  remains  of  our  loved  and 
honored  President.  But  in  this  as  in  all  our  losses, 
we  learn  the  lesson  of  the  stability  of  our  govern- 
ment. Though  our  arms  had  met  with  reverses; 
though  our  flag  had  been  trailed  in  the  dust ;  though 
our  pride  had  been  humbled  upon  the  seas,  we  were 
finally  victorious.  Just  as  peace  was  dawning  upon 
our  land,  he  who  has  guided  us  through  many  trou- 
bles has  been  stricken  down,  yet  our  country  still 
lives,  and  days  of  promise  and  bright  prospects  are 
before  us. 

To-day  the  American  people  pause  in  their  career, 
and  stand  with  bowed  heads  around  the  grave  of 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  Let  us  forget  all  our  political 
differences  and  animosities;  let  us  resolve  that 
henceforth  and  forever  nothing  shall  divide  us,  and 
that  this  country  and  its  government  shall  be  pre- 
served for  all  time  —  come  what  will,  cost  what  it 
may.  What  other  lesson  than  the  stability  of  our 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  49 

government  is  here  taught  none  may  tell.  If  it  be 
the  will  of  the  Disposer  of  all  events  to  teach  us  by 
this  sad  calamity  that  magistrates  are  ministers  of 
justice  to  execute  his  vengeance  upon  traitors,  may 
this  lesson  be  made  so  plain  to  us  that  a  wayfaring 
man  need  not  err  in  reading  it. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  was  a  man  above  partisan 
strife,  and  who  lived  for  his  country  ;  who  knew  not 
fear ;  who  was  "  serene  amidst  alarms ;"  who  was 
strong  in  faith  and  "  invincible  in  arms."  I  believe 
that  the  union  of  these  States  was  the  great,  grand 
object  of  his  life ;  and  it  was  his  highest  wish  that 
this  government  should  continue  and  be  perpetuated 
through  all  time.  With  such  objects  and  motives, 
what  one,  more  than  he,  deserves  our  praise  ?  In  the 
circle  of  fame,  there  is  a  single  summit  that  rises 
above  all  others  and  pierces  the  heavens.  On  that 
summit  there  are  places  for  two  only. 

WASHINGTON,  who  prayed  to  the  God  of  battles, 
who  won  for  us  our  liberty,  who  gave  to  us  our 
Eepublic,  occupies  one  of  those  places ;  ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN,  who,  through  the  past  four  years  of  conflict 
and  of  strife,  has  by  his  patriotism,  his  energy,  his 
wisdom  and  perseverance,  rescued  our  Eepublic 
from  traitors,  has  gained  for  himself  a  niche  in  the 
temple  of  Fame,  and  takes  his  place  by  the  side  of 


50  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

the  Father  of  his  country,  the  immortal  GEORGE 
WASHINGTON.  To-day  is  a  time  of  special  grief  and 
mourning,  and  my  heart  feels  sad  as  I  now  remem- 
ber that  State  which  in  the  years  of  this  conflict  has 

lost  two  illustrious  citizens  —  the  State  of  LINCOLN 
and  DOUGLAS.  To-day  they  sleep  their  last  sleep ; 
they  have  both  fallen.  Taking  different  views  of  the 
political  questions  which  agitated  their  country,  they 
may  yet  both  be  regarded  as  martyrs  in  this  great 
contest,  as  truly  such  as  the  soldiers  who  have 
fallen  in  the  charges  or  assaults  made  at  Petersburg 
and  Eichmond.  Some  future  Homer  will  sing  the 
praises  of  those  brave  men  who  have  thus  fallen. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  is  no  more ;  but  his  life  and 
his  example  may  still  teach  us  lessons  of  virtue  and 
of  wisdom.  I  beseech  you  and  all  loyal  men,  as  you 
have  regard  for  the  memory  of  the  patriots,  to  listen  to 
the  voice  which  comes  from  his  grave.  It  urges  that 
we  shall  carry  out  the  policy  which  he  had  begun,  that 
we  shall  firmly  stand  by  and  support  his  successor 
and  the  government.  Slaughtered  by  the  deadly 
bullet  of  an  assassin,  in  the  prime  of  manhood,  it  de- 
volves upon  others  to  carry  forward  the  work  which 
he  thus  suddenly  left  unfinished  and  incomplete. 

God  will,  I  believe,  protect  us  and  make  our  cause 
prosper.  The  bright  day  of  peace  will,  I  trust,  soon 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  51 

be  ushered  in,  and  events  which  to  us  seem  dark  and 
mysterious  may  be  made  to  minister  to  this  end. 
There  is  not  a  mother  in  the  land  but  wets  her  pillow 
with  tears  as  she  prays  that  the  death  of  our  Presi- 
dent may  tend  to  harmony  and  peace.  Gray-haired 
sires,  as  they  wring  their  hands  in  sorrow  for  our 
bereavement,  beseech  God  to  give  peace  to  our  dis- 
tracted country,  and  have  hope  as  they  recognize  in 
this  calamity  the  hand  of  Him  "  who  doeth  all  things 
well."  In  the  course  of  human  events  these  clouds 
will  pass  away ;  the  sun  will  shine  again,  and  joy 
and  happiness  will  return.  This  great  country,  cra- 
dled between  two  oceans,  will  be  worthy  of  him  who 
has  been  its  President,  and  will  be  the  freest,  happi- 
est, and  proudest  nation  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 

REMARKS  OF  MR.  RIDGWAY. 

I  feel  profoundly  impressed  with  the  saddening 
and  terrible  event,  which  convenes  us  here  to-day, 
and  in  uttering  these  sentiments,  Mr.  Speaker,  I 
am  sure  I  do  but  echo  the  sorrow  which  wells 
up  from  the  hearts  of  every  class  of  individuals 
throughout  the  wide  extent  of  our  country.  Party 
politics  are  for  a  time  hushed.  A  pall  hangs  over 
the  nation,  for  we  are  called  upon  to  mourn  the 
sudden  death,  and  by  violence,  of  ABRAHAM  LIN- 


52  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

COLK,  President  of  tlifc  United  States.  He  died 
when  he  could  least  be  spared.  He  died  when  he 
was  most  beloved  by  the  American  people.  Through 
his  forbearance  and  magnanimity  toward  the  chief 
soldier  of  the  rebellion  and  his  immediate  army,  he 
induced  them  to  lay  down  their  arms;  and  thus, 
within  the  last  fortnight  of  his  life,  he  inaugurated 
peace  for  this  torn  and  suffering  land,  and  caused 
joy  and  rejoicing  to  ascend  from  every  hearth- 
stone. It  was  at  such  a  time  as  that,  Mr.  Speaker, 
when,  as  I  said  before,  he  was  most  beloved,  that 
like  another  great  ruler,  Henry  the  Fourth,  of  France, 
he  was  stricken  down  by  an  assassin's  hand,  and 
has  left  a  nation  to  mourn  his  untimely  end.  It 
is,  therefore,  meet  and  proper,  Mr.  Speaker,  that 
this  representative  body  should  testify  in  a  becom- 
ing manner  the  bereavement  we  all  so  deeply  feel 
in  the  death  of  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  nation. 

REMARKS  OF  MR.  WILBER. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  By  reason  of  sickness,  I  was  not 
present  at  the  meeting  of  this  body  yesterday,  when 
I  had  supposed  that  these  words  of  remembrance 
and  regret,  for  one  who  has  fallen,  would  have 
been  spoken.  Unexpectedly  I  find  myself  to-day 
one  of  the  mourners,  as  I  may  say,  at  the  grave  of 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  53 

the  President.  We  are  mourning  for  one,  the  loss 
of  whom  no  poet  can  adequately  sing,  no  pen  or 
pencil  adequately  portray;  no  tongue  can  give  ut- 
terance to  that  which  we  this  day  feel.  Yet  from 
the  fullness  of  the  heart,  words  find  utterance,  and 
hence  I  have  asked  the  forbearance  of  the  House 
for  a  moment.  All  of  us  would  bow  the  knee  in 
reverence,  would  express  our  heartfelt  sadness, 
in  regard  to  him  whose  loss  we  now  deplore,  in 
whom  were  centered,  in  a  remarkable  degree,  good- 
ness and  greatness.  It  may  be  asked,  then,  why  we 
should  thus  mourn,  why  we  should  thus  express 
those  feelings  of  sadness  we  share  in  common,  one 
with  another?  It  is  fitting  that  we  should  thus 
lament  when  a  great  and  good  man  dies.  The 
ways  of  God  are  not  our  ways,  and  they  are  to  us 
often  mysterious.  A  day  like  this  calls  for  trust  in 
God.  for  faith  in  his  overruling  providence.  God 
in  his  mercy  permitted  the  foundations  of  this  great 
nation  to  be  laid;  he  favored  us  as  a  people,  and 
led  us  on  from  small  beginnings  to  unparalleled 
prosperity.  Now,  we  may  well  ask  why  it  is  that 
he  allows  that  a  man,  so  good  and  so  much  needed 
as  he  who  has  been  stricken  down,  should  be  taken 
from  us  ?  The  Almighty  Euler  alone  knows  why, 
and  it  becomes  us  to  bow  humbly  to  his  dictates. 


54  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

Our  form  of  government  has  been  regarded  by 
other  nations  as  an  experiment.  We  have  given 
proof  in  times  of  peace  and  of  war,  that  if  it  has 
been  an  experiment,  it  was  a  successful  one,  and 
that  our  government  possessed  the  element  of  sta- 
bility. One  test  more  was  left  for  us  —  one  further 
trial  of  the  principles  of  free  government.  That 
test  was,  that  the  executive  head  of  the  government 
should  be  thus  suddenly  stricken  down  by  his  own 
child.  I  say  his  child,  for  the  assassin  was  an 
American  citizen,  and  we  have  called  our  Execu- 
tive, FATHER  ABRAHAM.  I  ask  you,  has  there  been 
a  name  more  worthily  given  since  the  days  of 
WASHIHGTON  ?  He  was  the  father  of  the  nation. 
In  his  bosom  were  feelings  of  kindness,  even  for 
the  enemies  of  his  country.  Truly,  he  was  FATHER 
ABRAHAM  —  he  whose  goodness  had  taught  the 
world  to  respect  him,  whose  kindness  of  heart  and 
generous  feelings,  and  whose  mercy  have  been  ex- 
celled by  none  upon  earth,  since  the  days  when 
our  blessed  Saviour  was  among  men  in  bodily 
form.  During  the  four  years  of  contest  now  draw- 
ing to  a  close,  he  was  constantly  harassed  and 
knew  no  rest.  Now,  as  brighter  days  were  dawn- 
ing for  our  country,  as  in  this  glad  spring  time 
nature  was  rejoicing,  he  was  permitted  relaxation. 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  55 

He,  with  his  family,  took  a  single  hour  from  the 
labors  incident  to  his  high  office  for  enjoyment  and 
repose.  His  iron  visage,  marked  with  the  traces 
of  the  conflict  through  which  he  had  passed,  bore 
for  the  time  the  smile  of  merriment.  It  was  just 
then,  when  the  moment  of  relaxation  had  come, 
when  the  smile  was  upon  his  features,  that  the  as- 
sassin took  his  life.  That  smile,  as  it  were  the 
smile  of  an  angel,  lingered  upon  his  face  in  death. 
Thus  the  good  man  died;  thus  his  spirit  left  us. 
He  left  his  home  on  earth  for  a  dwelling  not  made 
with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens. 

What  a  day  of  mourning  is  this!  We  have 
known  days  when  other  nations  were  in  tears ;  but 
for  us  as  a  nation,  the  day  of  mourning  has  scarcely 
been  known  until  now.  The  sad  day  has  at  length 
come  to  us  also.  When  we  received  intelligence 
of  our  loss,  on  Saturday  last,  how  the  men  of  this 
House  looked  at  each  other.  If  every  one  had  re- 
ceived intelligence  of  his  own  father's  death,  there 
could  not  have  been  greater  sorrow.  Not  one  of 
us  had  the  heart  to  utter  a  word.  Silent  tears 
were  streaming  down  manly  cheeks.  To-day  we 
have  scarce  recovered  from  the  shock,  so  profound 
was  the  grief  of  every  heart;  to-day  we  see  on 
every  hand  the  signs  of  mourning,  the  habiliments 


56  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

of  woe.  And  this  is  because  he  whom  we  loved  to 
call  FATHER  ABRAHAM  is  dead.  ABRAHAM  LIN- 
COLN was  both  President  and  father  of  our  country. 
He  came  from  humble  life,  from  the  poor,  and  he 
knew  how  to  remember  them.  The  lowly  and  the 
oppressed,  the  widow  and  the  orphan,  and  all  of 
us  in  every  part  of  this  great  land,  both  north 
and  south,  have  cause  to  mourn  as  nation  never 
mourned  before. 

We  stand  now  by  his  grave;  and  where  is  that 
grave  ?  It  is  in  the  heart  of  every  loyal  American. 
Soon  his  mortal  remains  will  be  borne  from  the 
capital  of  his  country,  and  restored  to  his  native 
State,  to  the  home  where  he  lived  in  private  life, 
to  which  he  has  never  returned  since  four  years 
ago  he  went  to  Washington  to  assume  the  weighty 
responsibilities  of  his  office.  They  will  bury  him 
there,  and  the  blossoms  of  the  fair  West  will  grow 
and  bloom  from  the  soil  that  rests  upon  his  bosom. 
The  lovers  of  liberty  will,  by  their  praise  of  his  many 
virtues,  erect  the  best  monument  to  his  memory. 

REMARKS  OF  MR.  SHEPARD. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  I  am  sorry  that  ABRAHAM  LIN- 
COLN is  dead.  Slavery  now  is  also  dead.  The  late 
President  is  one  of  the  very  few  in  all  history  who 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  57 

needs  no  monument.  Already  Slavery  has  reared  a 
monument  of  human  bones,  surmounted  by  the 
skulls  of  captains  and  generals.  As  such,  by  the 
action  of  God's  elements,  in  a  short  time  it  will  dis- 
solve into  the  deep  forgetfulness  of  oblivion,  whilst 
the  memories  of  those  who  battled  for  the  right  will 
weave  themselves  into  the  sacred  traditions  of  every 
loyal  household  in  the  land. 

Mr.  LINCOLN  was  not  only  the  martyr  of  a  great 
cause,  but  the  victim  of  a  generous  belief  in  the 
gratitude  of  those  whose  past  crimes  had  been  for- 
given. His  heart  asserted  its  supremacy  over  his 
intellect,  and  caused  him  to  forget  that  the  lowest 
crimes  of  the  dark  ages  could  be  engrafted  upon  the 
refinements  of  a  civilization  just  now  glittering  in 
the  rays  of  the  new  morning  light. 

Confronting  the  proffered  pardon,  this  fiend  of 
Slavery  disbands  its  armies  and  renews  the  contest 
by  assassination.  Let  no  pretexts  or  sophisms 
becloud  the  mind.  It  is  true,  Slavery  is  dead ;  but 
the  malignant  passions  which  belong  to  it  survive, 
and  find  their  expression  in  crimes  which  compel  us 
to  notice  the  enormity,  and  what  was  the  educational 
tendency,  of  this  great  national  sin. 

The  tornado  of  civil  war,  arising  from  opposing 
currents,  in  its  course  uprooting  strong  oaks  and 


58  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

unroofing  the  hearthstones  of  sacred  households,  has 
swept  over  the  land,  leaving  the  calm  sun  to  shine 
out  again  upon  its  rainbow  which  now  spans  the 
blood-sprinkled  earth. 

For  over  two  centuries  the  streams  heading  at 
Plymouth  Eock  and  Jamestown  have  been  increas- 
ing in  volume  and  slowly  converging,  until,  in  this 
death,  they  have  united  into  one.  Just  now,  as  we 
emerge  into  the  deeper  and  broader  waters  of  the 
great  stream  of  time,  God,  for  some  wise  purpose, 
has  changed  the  pilot  of  the  ship  of  State. 

May  the  new  one  be  as  discreet  in  his  manage- 
ment of  the  ship  as  was  the  dead  captain  whose 
memory  we  so  fondly  cherish. 


FRIDAY,  April  21, 1865. 

The  Senate  returned  the  concurrent  resolutions 
relative  to  the  death  of  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  late 
President  of  the  United  States,  with  a  message  that 
they  had  passed  the  same,  without  amendment. 

Whereas,  it  is  represented  that  the  remains  of  the 
deceased  President,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  will  pass 
through  the  principal  cities  on  the  line  of  the  Central 
railroad,  and  that  a  brief  stop  will  be  made  in  this 
city;  therefore, 

Resolved  (if  the  Assembly  concur),  That  a  com- 


MEMORY   OF   PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  59 

mittee  consisting  of  three  from  the  Senate  and  five 
from  the  Assembly,  be  appointed  to  meet  those 
having  the  remains  of  the  deceased  in  charge,  at  the 
city  of  New  York,  and  accompany  them  through 
the  State;  and  that  the  Lieutenant-Governor  be 
added  to  that  committee  as  the  chairman  thereof. 

The  rule  being  suspended  by  unanimous  consent, 

Mr.  WOOD  moved  to  amend  said  resolution  as 
follows :  Insert  after  the  word  "  appointed,"  the 
words  "  to  act  in  concert  with  the  Governor  of  the 
State,  and  the  commander  of  this  division,  deputed 
by  the  War  Department  for  that  purpose,  and  with 
the  municipal  authorities  of  Albany,  in  perfecting 
arrangements  for  the  reception  of  the  body  of  the 
deceased  President  at  the  Capitol  of  this  State,"  and 

Mr.  SPEAKER  put  the  question  whether  the  House 
would  agree  to  said  amendment,  and  it  was  deter- 
mined in  the  affirmative. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  then  put  the  question  whether  the 
House  would  agree  to  said  resolution,  as  amended, 
and  it  was  determined  in  the  affirmative. 


SATURDAY,  April  22, 1865. 

Mr.  PITTS  offered  for  the  consideration  of  the 
House  a  preamble  and  resolution,  in  the  words 
following,  to  wit : 

Whereas,  the  great  calamity  that  has  befallen  the 


60  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS. 

country,  whereby  the  people  of  this  State  should 
leave  nothing  undone  to  testify  their  love  and 
solemn  veneration  for  the  heroic  deeds  and  public 
services,  reflecting  lustre  on  the  country  at  large, 
of  the  late  President,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  whose 
untimely  death  we  are  called  to  mourn, 

Resolved  (if  the  Senate  concur),  That  His  Excel- 
lency Governor  FENTON  be  hereby  requested  to  invite 
the  Hon.  HAMILTON  FISH,  President  of  the  State 
Society  of  the  Cincinnati,  and  a  committee  of  three 
of  said  society,  to  meet  at  the  Capitol  in  the  city  of 
Albany,  on  the  25th  day  of  April,  1865,  at  10  o'clock 
A.  M.,  to  concert  measures  to  accompany  the  remains 
of  our  late  lamented  President  to  Springfield,  111.; 
and  that  His  Excellency  be  hereby  authorized  and 
requested  to  make  such  suitable  and  proper  arrange- 
ments as  may  be  necessary  for  the  occasion. 

The  rule  being  suspended  by  unanimous  consent, 
Mr.  SPEAKER  put  the  question  whether  the  House 

would  agree  to  said  resolution,  and  it  was  determined 

in  the  affirmative. 

Ordered,  That  the  clerk  deliver  said  resolution  to 
the  Senate,  and  request  their  concurrence  therein. 


PROCEEDINGS 


IN  THE  SENATE 


* 


SENATE   PKOOEEDINGS 


ON  THE 


DEATH  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN. 


MESSAGE  OF  THE  GOVERNOR. 

IN  SENATE,          ) 
Saturday,  April  15, 1865.  f 

The  private  secretary  of  His  Excellency  the  Gov- 
ernor appeared  in  the  Senate  chamber  and  presented 
a  communication  from  His  Excellency  in  the  words 
following,  to  wit : 

EXECUTIVE  DEPARTMENT,  ) 
ALBANY,  April  15, 1865.    \ 

To  the  Legislature  : 

It  becomes  my  painful  duty  to  announce  to  the 
Legislature  the  death  of  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  the 
President  of  the  United  States. 

It  is  with  emotions  of  profound  sorrow  that  I 
make  this  announcement  to  your  honorable  body. 
Such  an  event  is  a  national  calamity ;  and  under  the 
circumstances  now  attending  this  bereavement,  the 
nation  weeps  with  heightened  anguish.  To  be  de- 
prived of  his  wisdom,  experience  and  counsel,  at  a 
time  when  most  important  to  return  us  securely  to 


64  LEGISLATIVE   HONORS  TO   THE 

national  peace,  fraternity  and  prosperity ;  at  a  time 
when  the  gigantic  war  which  confronted  him  at  the 
threshold  of  his  administration  is  about  drawing  to  a 
close,  and  a  final  deliverance  obtained  from  our  civil 
disturbances,  for  which  we  have  sacrificed  so  much, 
is  a  calamity  that  will  cause  the  deepest  sadness  and 
gloom  to  the  millions  of  our  land  and  to  the  friends 
of  freedom  throughout  the  world.  Thus,  it  is  the 
third  time  in  our  history,  the  Republic  is  subjected 
to  this  trial ;  but  it  is  hoped  that  our  good  cause  and 
country,  watered  by  a  nation's  tears  and  sanctified 
by  its  prayers,  will  pass  in  safety  through  the  ordeal 
to  a  higher  life  and  destiny. 

I  have  also  to  communicate  to  you  the  sad  intelli- 
gence that  our  noble  Secretary  of  State,  an  honored 
and  favored  son  of  New  York,  WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD, 
was  likewise  a  victim  of  the  tragic  plot  of  the  assas- 
sins, and  now  lies  in  an  unconscious  condition.  May 
God  spare  his  life  to  the  nation. 

E.  E.  FENTON. 

Mr.  FOLGER  offered  the  following  resolution : 

Resolved  (if  the  Assembly  concur),  That  the  mes- 
sage of  His  Excellency  the  Governor,  be  referred  to 
a  joint  select  committee  of  five  from  the  Senate  and 
seven  from  the  Assembly,  and  that  the  Legislature 
take  a  recess  until  one  o'clock  p.  M.  of  this  day. 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  65 

The  resolution  was  unanimously  adopted  and 
transmitted  to  the  Assembly,  where  it  was  amended 
by  fixing  the  time  of  meeting  at  11£  o'clock  A.  M., 
which  was  concurred  in  by  the  Senate. 

The  PRESIDENT  appointed  as  such  committee,  on 
the  part  of  the  Senate,  Messrs.  FOLGER,  MURPHY, 
ANDREWS,  COOK  and  SHAFER. 

11|  O'CLOCK,  A.  M. 

Mr.  FOLGER,  from  the  select  committee,  submitted 
the  following  report : 
To  the  Senate : 

The  joint  committee  of  the  two  Houses  on  the 
message  of  His  Excellency  the  Governor,  this  day 
transmitted  to  the  Legislature,  makes  the  following 
report : 

The  committee,  having  in  mind  that  the  funeral 
ceremonies  of  the  late  President  of  the  United  States 
will  probably  take  place  on  some  early  day  in  the 
next  week,  and  that  such  day  will  be  observed 
throughout  the  whole  country  as  a  day  of  solemn 
recognition  of  the  tragic  and  awful  event  which  now 
fills  all  thought,  and  that  the  Legislature  will  join  in 
that  observance,  do  unanimously  recommend  that  on 
the  day  which  shall  be  appointed  for  such  obsequies, 
the  two  Houses  of  the  Legislature  do  meet  in  their 


66  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

respective  chambers  at  the  hour  appointed  for  such 
funeral  ceremonies,  and  that  then,  the  two  Houses 
being  opened  with  prayer  by  clergymen  especially 
selected  for  that  service,  resolutions  appropriate  to 
the  occasion  be  offered ;  that  the  joint  committee  of 
the  two  Houses  be  now  empowered  to  sit  again,  to 
draft  such  resolutions,  and  report  them  on  that  day 
to  the  respective  Houses,  and  do  report  the  following 
resolution : 

Unsolved,  By  the  Senate  (if  the  Assembly  concur), 
that  the  Legislature,  viewing  this  unexampled  and 
solemn  event  as  demanding  a  cessation  of  legislative 
business,  do  now  adjourn  until  Tuesday  of  next  week, 
at  11  o'clock  A.  M. 

CHAELES  J.  FOLGEK, 

Chairman  Senate  Com. 
THOS.  B.  VAN  BUBEN, 

Chairman  Assembly  Coin. 

The  report  of  the  committee  was  adopted  by  the 
Senate. 

The  Superintendent  of  the  Capitol  was  directed 
to  drape  the  Senate  chamber  in  mourning  on  the 
day  of  the  funeral. 

The  Assembly  concurred  with  the  Senate  in  adopt- 
ing the  report  of  the  committee,  and 

The  Senate  adjourned. 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  67 


WEDNESDAY,  April  19,  1865. 
REV.  DR.  SPRAGUE'S   PRAYER. 

Rev.  Dr.  SPRAGUE,  of  Albany,  offered  prayer,  as 
follows : 

Almighty  and  All  Gracious  God,  we  bow  before 
Thee  as  the  Sovereign  and  Lord  of  the  creation ;  as 
the  God  of  all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  Thou  hast 
ever  been  the  God  of  this  nation,  guiding  us  amidst 
dangers,  guiding  us  through  difficulties,  and  helping 
us  in  all  our  times  of  need.  But  we  have  been  diso- 
bedient to  Thy  commandments  and  ungrateful  for 
Thy  mercies;  and  Thou  hast,  in  righteous  retribu- 
tion, suffered  a  dark  cloud  to  settle  over  our  national 
prosperity — when  we  imagined  ourselves  secure,  we 
awoke  to  the  appalling  discovery  that  we  were  in  the 
midst  of  the  horrors  of  a  desolating  war.  And  that 
war  thou  hast  suffered  to  rage  with  fearful  fury 
during  four  consecutive  years.  At  length  we  thought 
the  cloud  was  beginning  to  move — we  recognized, 
in  a  succession  of  glorious  victories,  the  welcome 
harbinger  of  a  better  day.  But  just  at  the  moment 
when  our  hearts  were  beating  high  with  joy,  because 
the  bow  appeared  in  the  cloud,  Thou  hast  commis- 
sioned a  barbed  arrow  to  strike  the  heart  of  the 


68  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

whole  nation — he  whom  the  nation  had  chosen  to  be 
its  head  has  been  stricken  down  in  a  moment  by  the 
hand  of  an  assassin.  And  this  is  the  hour  in  which 
the  nation  is  looking  up  to  Thee,  from  the  depths  of 
funeral  gloom,  to  ask  that  Thine  all  gracious  and  all 
sustaining  arm  may  be  revealed  in  this  time  of  awful 
calamity. 

And  first  of  all  we  desire  to  commend  to  Thee 
those  whose  hearts  are  bleeding  from  a  disruption  of 
the  tenderest  ties  of  life:  the  widow,  from  whom 
Thou  hast  taken  the  husband  of  her  youth;  the 
children  whom  Thou  hast  bereaved  of  a  devoted  and 
beloved  father ;  and  all  the  other  mourning  relatives, 
we  commend  to  the  consolation  of  Heavenly  grace. 
Wilt  thou  cheer  them  amidst  all  their  desolation  by 
the  tokens  of  Thy  love  ?  Wilt  Thou  enable  them  to 
bow  submissively  before  Thine  hand,  to  trust  Thee 
implicitly  amidst  all  the  darkness,  and  to  lay  the 
solemn  event  to  heart,  that  it  shall  be  greatly  sub- 
servient to  their  preparation  for  a  better  world  ? 

We  commend  to  Thee  our  newly  inducted  Presi- 
dent, upon  whom  has  so  suddenly  devolved  the 
mighty  responsibility  of  superintending  and  directing 
the  mechanism  of  our  government.  We  implore  for 
him  the  needed  wisdom  and  grace  and  strength  from 
on  high.  Wilt  Thou  save  his  life  from  becoming  a 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  69 

sacrifice  to  incarnate  fiends  ?  Wilt  Thou  inspire  him 
with  that  unwavering  confidence  in  Thee  that  will 
make  him  strong  and  earnest  in  the  discharge  of  his 
duty  ?  Wilt  Thou  cause  his  administration,  while  he 
has  yet  only  entered  upon  it,  to  be  signalized  by  the 
restoration  of  peace,  and,  in  its  progress,  may  it 
scatter  the  richest  blessings  throughout  the  length 
and  breadth  of  our  land. 

We  commend  to  Thy  special  blessing  the  several 
members  of  the  Cabinet  over  which  the  departed 
President  has  so  long  presided.  While  they  are 
devoutly  thankful  that  their  lives  have  been  pre- 
served in  the  midst  of  such  imminent  peril,  let  them 
gird  themselves  for  fresh  devotion  to  the  interests 
of  their  country.  Let  there  be  light  and  wisdom  in 
their  minds;  let  there  be  courage,  and  constancy, 
and  faith,  and  hope  in  their  hearts ;  and  let  all  the 
measures  they  adopt,  be  such  as  will  meet  Thine 
approbation,  and  find  a  grateful  response  from  every 
patriotic  bosom.  May  the  Secretary  of  State,  who 
was  also  the  object  of  a  murderous  attack,  and  his 
son  and  assistant,  who  was  marked  as  another  vic- 
tim, be  mercifully  spared  and  restored  to  health  and 
soundness;  and  may  they  bring  away  with  them 
from  the  scene  of  their  sufferings  such  a  sense  of 
obligation  to  God,  and  such  impressions  of  duty  to 


70  LEGISLATIVE  HONOKS  TO  THE 

their  fellow  men,  as  shall  render  their  lives  the  more 
valuable  to  their  country  for  having  been  thus 
imperiled. 

We  commend  to  Thee  all  who  hold  offices  of  pub- 
lic trust,  whether  executive  or  legislative,  throughout 
our  land,  and  pray  that  this  solemn  dispensation  may 
make  them  wiser  and  more  useful  in  the  exalted  sta- 
tions they  occupy.  We  specially  commend  the 
Legislature  of  this  State,  and  more  especially  the 
branch  of  it  here  convened.  With  this  expression  of 
their  sorrow  may  there  be  joined  a  reverent  and 
devout  recognition  of  Thy  providence,  and  may 
there  come  to  each  of  them,  through  these  solemn 
services,  a  fresh  baptism,  not  only  of  enlightened 
patriotism,  but  of  earnest  thought,  and  of  devout  feel- 
ing. As  their  annual  term  of  legislation  is  about  to 
expire,  may  Thy  gracious  providence  attend  them 
to  their  several  homes,  and  reunite  them  with  whom 
they  love  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  best  of  domestic 
blessings. 

And  now,  Father,  what  remains  but  that  we  leave 
our  bleeding  country,  with  all  its  varied  interests,  in 
Thy  gracious  care.  We  look  to  Thee  to  repair  the 
desolation ;  to  restore  to  us  peace ;  and  to  unite  this 
great  nation  again  in  goodly  cooperation  for  the 
benefit  of  the  world.  We  thank  Thee  for  all  that 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  71 

our  lamented  President  has  done  for  us;  and  now 
that  his  work  on  earth  is  accomplished,  we  pray  that 
we  may  help  to  perpetuate  his  usefulness  by  giving 
heed  to  the  lessons  which  come  to  us  from  his  grave. 
So  teach  us  to  number  our  days,  in  view  of  this  most 
solemn  dispensation,  that  we  may  apply  our  hearts 
unto  wisdom.  Let  us  account  it  a  blessed  privilege 
to  li ve  for  our  country,  but  let  us  see  to  it  that  we 
live  also  for  God  and  for  Heaven.  And  while  we 
labor  diligently  to  promote  our  country's  welfare,  let 
us  realize  that  all  the  springs  of  our  national  safety 
and  greatness  are  in  Thee,  and  that  without  Thy 
guiding  and  sustaining  and  helping  hand,  our  efforts 
will  be  utterly  powerless. 

And  now  wilt  Thou  graciously  preside  over  the 
exercises  of  this  House,  and  let  all  things  be  done  to 
Thine  acceptance  and  honor?  We  offer  Thee  our 
prayer,  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  our  Eedeemer. 
AMEN. 

Mr.  FOLGER,  chairman  of  the  committee,  offered 
for  the  consideration  of  the  Senate  the  following 
resolutions : 

Resolved,  1st.  That  the  Legislature  of  the  State 
of  New  York  has  received  the  announcement  of  the 
death  of  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  late  President  of  the 
United  States,  with  emotions  of  profound  sorrow. 


72  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 


2d.  That  in  the  character  of  the  illustrious  dead 
were  united  the  patriot  and  statesman,  whose  purity 
of  purpose  and  wisdom  of  counsel,  have  guided  our 
Eepublic  safely  in  its  hour  of  greatest  trial,  and 
enshrined  him,  in  the  affections  of  the  American 
people. 

3d.  That  this  sad  and  afflicting  event  is  a  national 
bereavement,  the  more  to  be  deplored  that  his  ad- 
ministration, having  well-nigh  suppressed  the  gigan- 
tic rebellion  in  the  South,  promised,  as  its  crowning 
act  of  glory,  the  speedy  and  happy  pacification  of 
the  whole  country. 

4th.  That  the  unparalleled  crime,  by  which  the 
nation  has  been  deprived  of  the  services  of  the  chief 
of  its  own  free  choice,  while  in  the  active  discharge 
of  his  duties,  is  not  only  revolting  to  the  general 
sense  of  mankind,  but  is  an  outrage  upon  popular 
government,  particularly  deserving  of  the  execration 
of  the  American  people,  and  consigning  to  eternal 
infamy  its  perpetrators  and  abettors. 

5th.  That  we  have  the  highest  confidence  in  the 
patriotism,  good  sense,  virtue  and  religion  of  the 
American  people ;  and  we  believe  that,  even  under 
this  greatest  of  all  calamities,  they  will  exhibit  to 
the  world  their  regard  for  the  Constitution  and  Laws 
of  their  country,  their  love  of  justice  and  order,  and 
their  firm  reliance  upon  an  all-wise  and  overruling 
Providence. 

6th.  That  to  God,  who  has  been  with  this  nation 
from  the  beginning,  who,  through  the  past  four  years 
of  terrible  war  has  guided  and  protected  us,  and 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  73 

who  of  late  has  so  signally  blessed  us,  do  we  turn  in 
this  our  day  of  distress  and  humbly  commit  ourselves 
and  our  interests. 

7th.  That  while  the  country  mourns  its  loss,  its 
sympathies  are  due  to  the  bereaved  family  of  the 
deceased,  and  that  his  Excellency  the  Governor  be 
requested  to  transmit  to  them  these  resolutions,  with 
the  expression  of  the  sincere  condolence,  in  their 
great  misfortune,  of  the  people  of  this  State. 

8th.  That  to  the  Hon.  WILLIAM  H.  SEWARD, 
Secretary  of  State,  we  tender  our  sympathy  in  his 
sufferings  and  our  hope  for  his  speedy  recovery; 
and  we  assure  him  that  the  murderous  attempt  to 
remove  him  from  his  sphere  of  usefulness,  has  only 
strengthened  him  in  the  love  and  confidence  of  his 
countrymen. 

9th.  That  the  Capitol  be  draped  in  mourning,  and 
the  members  and  officers  of  both  Houses  wear  a 
uniform  badge  of  sorrow  for  thirty  days,  and  that  it 
is  recommended  to  all  the  citizens  of  this  State  to 
wear  some  symbol  of  mourning  for  a  like  period. 

REMARKS  OF  MR.  FOLGER. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  But  that  the  proprieties  of  the 
occasion  demand  a  few  words  upon  the  resolutions  I 
have  reported,  as  chairman  of  the  select  committee, 
I  should  have  preferred  to  have  been  silent.  For 
what  can  one  utter,  that  is  not  already  in  the  throb- 
bing heart  of  the  nation  ?  What  is  the  word  of  any 
10 


74  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

one,  but  the  fond,  vain  attempt  to  voice  the  dumb 
agony  of  this  afflicted  people?  Who  shall  fitly  speak 
for  this  stricken  community?  ~No  one,  save  him  who 
hath  acquired  the  power,  in  the  language  of  JOHN 
MILTON,  "by  devout  prayer  to  that  Eternal  Spirit 
who  can  enrich  with  all  utterance  and  knowledge, 
and  sends  out  His  seraphim,  with  the  hallowed  fire 
of  His  altar,  to  touch  and  purify  the  lips  of  whom 
He  pleases." 

Less  than  one  short  fortnight  ago,  the  Chief  Magis- 
trate of  this  commonwealth,  in  accordance  with  the 
glad  feelings  of  the  whole  community,  made  proc- 
lamation of  a  day  of  jubilee  and  thanksgiving,  "  for 
the  bright  prospects  of  returning  peace  and  fraternal 
harmony."  So  man  proposes.  That  day  has  not  yet 
come.  And  here  we  sit,  in  the  shadow  of  a  great 
sorrow,  amid  the  external  drapings  of  mourning,  and 
with  a  mighty  grief  grasping  at  our  souls  and  stifling 
all  our  powers.  For  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the 
greater  commonwealth  has  fallen,  done  to  death,  by 
the  foul  blow  of  the  assassin.  So  God  disposes. 

The  loss,  the  calamity,  is  ours.  His — the  lamented 
ruler — his  is  the  profit,  the  great  gain.  Other  Pres- 
idents have  died.  But  none  when  the  tangled  skein 
of  vast  and  mighty  and  pregnant  policy  lay  yet 
unraveled  in  their  trusted  fingers,  and  a  hoping, 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  75 

longing  people  waited  in  patient,  confiding  reliance 
for  the  great  result.  Other  leaders,  other  great  men 
of  the  nation  have  died.  But  their  memories  needs 
must  wait  for  the  haze  of  years  settling  upon  the 
horizon  where  their  sun  had  set,  to  refract  the  rays  of 
burning  prejudice,  and  to  mellow  the  heat  and  hate 
of  partisan  aspersion.  No  other  President,  no  other 
leader,  no  other  great  man  of  the  nation,  save  one, 
has  passed  away  in  blood,  and  that  one,  though  he 
may  not  have  sought,  did  not  avoid  the  occasion. 
And  the  tragic  interest  which,  surrounding  the  name 
of  HAMILTON,  draws  to  his  memory  the  tearful  sym- 
pathy and  regard  of  succeeding  generations  of  his 
countrymen,  in  an  accumulated  degree,  will  keep 
ever  green  in  fond  and  passionate  remembrance  the 
idea  of  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  The  act  of  the  murderer 
was  the  apotheosis  of  the  victim. 

It  is  hardly  possible  for  us,  the  men  of  his  own 
time,  busy  with  the  practical  issues  which  engrossed 
his  own  great  soul — it  is  hardly  possible  for  us  to  an- 
alyze, with  entire  correctness,  all  the  elements  of  char- 
acter which,  in  their  subtle  affinity,  took  such  close, 
firm  hold  of  the  popular  feeling,  and  made  him  the 
acknowledged,  the  holy-anointed  leader  of  the  people. 

ANDREW  JACKSON  was  an  almost  omnipotent 
leader.  It  was  his  imperious,  overriding,  to-nought- 


76  LEGISLATIVE   HONORS  TO  THE 

yielding  will,  wisely  directed  by  the  greatest  natural 
sagacity,  that  enabled  him,  the  "cloud-compelling 
Jove,"  to  sway  the  masses  to  his  purposes. 

HENRY  CLAY  was  a  leader.  The  scope  of  his 
power  had  a  limit,  and  reached  not  beyond  the  irre- 
sistible fascination  of  the  happiest  personal  manners, 
and  the  seductive  persuasion  of  the  most  graceful 
rhetoric  and  elocution. 

DANIEL  WEBSTER  was  a  leader.  There  was  an 
awe  about  him.  It  was  as  if  one  of  the  gods  had 
come  from  out  of  the  clouds  about  Olympus,  and 
lighting  upon  a  "heaven-kissing  hill,"  stayed  for 
mortals  to  render  him  his  due  reverence. 

It  needs  not  to  lessen  or  to  disparage  these  to  lift 
up  the  departed  President.  He  differed  from  them 
all.  Lacking  somewhat  of  what  they  had,  he  had 
somewhat  of  what  they  all  lacked.  And  it  was  by 
this  that  he  laid  his  hand  upon  the  heart  of  the  peo- 
ple, and  it  beat  responsive  to  his  touch.  ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN — the  wisest  and  oldest  sage  in  the  land 
veiled  his  wisdom  before  his  heaven-flashed  sagacity, 
and  the  most  timid  child  looked  into  his  loving  eyes 
and  instinctively  sought  a  cradle  in  his  bosom.  The 
famed  warrior  of  fierce  and  bloody  battles  recog- 
nized his  moral  courage  and  knew  him  as  a  hero ; 
and  the  erring,  the  lawless,  the  condemned  to  death, 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  77 

blessed  the  kindly,  yearning,  loving  nature  that 
oft  and  oft  again  gave  the  life-saving  pardon. 
Burdened  with  the  cares  of  state,  such  as  no  one 
ever  had  laid  on  human  shoulders,  he  crisped  the 
surface  of  the  deep  current  of  grave  affairs  with 
the  light  zephyrs  of  a  kindly  hilarity,  and  solved 
perplexing  problems  of  momentous  politics  with  face- 
tious explanations  —  parable  illustrating  precept. 
His  head  was  sound  and  right.  His  heart  was 
great,  and  good,  and  loyal — loyal  to  the  people, 
whose  servant  he  was;  loyal  to  the  law  which  he 
ministered ;  loyal  to  the  great  idea  of  the  Eepublic 
which  he  magistered ;  loyal  to  the  God  who,  ruling 
in  the  universe,  set  him  to  rule  on  earth,  in  part 
thereof.  Chosen  to  his  position  of  elective  Chief 
Magistrate  by  a  minority  of  the  people,  he  had  come 
to  sit  upon  a  throne  of  the  hearts  of  all,  and  had  so 
gained  upon  doubtful  friends,  and  so  won  upon  open 
enemies,  as  that  no  mortal  name  in  all  this  fair  land 
was,  on  the  day  of  his  violent  death,  more  coupled 
with  affection,  with  hope,  with  blessing,  with  aspira- 
tion, and  with  confidence,  than  his. 

And  yet  he  died,  suddenly,  by  violence,  in  ripe 
manhood,  on  the  top  of  Pisgah,  looking  to  the 
goodly,  peaceful  Canaan  toward  which,  for  weary 
years,  he  had  toilingly  led  his  people. 


78  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

As  for  him  who  has  thus  gone,  in  the  power  of 
his  manhood,  in  the  riclj  strength  of  his  intellect, 
in  the  noontide  of  his  glory,  in  the  climax  of  his 
fame,  ere  old  age  had  come  upon  him,  when  he 
should  be, 

"  With  withered  fist,  still  striking  at  death's  door :" 

apart  from  an  allowance  for  the  natural  longing  for 
prolonged  life;  apart  from  the  god-like  desire  to 
behold  the  progress  of  humanity,  and  to  see  the 
work  of  our  own  and  of  others'  hands  established, 
we  must  regard  his  life  and  death  as  fortunate.  He 
and  his  administration  will  be,  for  future  ages,  a 
most  luminous  point  in  American  history.  And  this 
last,  sadly  horrid  act  in  his  conspicuously  eventful 
life,  while  it  makes  for  his  memory  an  endeared  and 
affectionate  remembrance  in  every  American  house- 
hold, is  at  the  same  time  the  lens  of  fate,  pouring 
upon  his  name  and  his  character  and  career  the  con- 
centrated rays  of  the  light  of  time  and  the  intensi- 
fied effulgence  of  history. 

He  lived,  and  acted,  and  did,  and  refrained  to  do, 
that  men  might  "  learn  more  worthily  to  understand 
and  appreciate  what  a  glorious  gift  God  bestows  on 
a  nation  when  He  gives  them  a  true,  and  wise,  and 
just,  and  noble,  and  gentle  ruler." 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  79 

"  In  war  was  never  lion  raged  more  fierce  ; 
In  peace  was  never  gentle  lamb  more  mild." 

He  essayed  no  single  great  achievement  which, 
while  it  dazzled,  should  confuse,  but  not  too  far  in 
advance  of  the  people,  he  did  ever,  not  too  soon,  nor 
yet  too  late,  guide  them  to  the  fitting  climacteric  of 
all  the  turmoil  and  confusion,  and  strife,  and  waste, 
and  blood  of  this  quadrature  of  years.  "  He  was  a 
rich  storehouse  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  relief  of 
man's  estate." 

With  all  the  war  powers  of  the  Constitution  in  his 
grasp,  until  his  advent,  hidden  in  their  secret  crypt, 
and  enough,  if  selfishly  used,  to  make  him  the  most 
absolute  ruler  in  the  world,  we  see  him  yearning, 
striving  for  that  prevailing  peace  which  should,  by 
its  coming,  remit  those  vast  powers  to  their  recess, 
reduce  him,  the  Military  Commander-in-chief,  capa- 
ble of  illimitable  space,  to  the  simple  Chief  Magis- 
trate, rounded  by  the  narrow  circle  of  fixed  and 
written  law.  Here,  truly,  was  a  humble,  but  a  god- 
like soul,  for  "  by  our  spirits  are  we  deified." 

And  now,  "lingering  on  the  spot  where  a  spiritual 
hero  has  sealed  his  faith,"  what  lesson  is  there  for  us 
who  survive,  and  who  stand  in  amazement  almost 
stupid  at  the  portentous  event.  The  saying  of  ED- 
MUND BURKE  is  recalled :  "  When  bad  men  conspire, 


80  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO   THE 

good  men'  must  associate."  As  LINCOLN  and  all  his 
powers  were  consecrated  to  the  country  which  he 
loved,  and  the  people  who  loved  him,  so,  in  such 
degrees  as  we  may  be  able  to  lash  our  laggard 
natures,  let  us  be  consecrated.  Let  us  allay  partisan 
strife;  let  us  frown  on  greed  for  office,  and  that 
canker  of  our  institutions — office  sought  and  used  to 
glut  the  greed  for  gain ;  let  us  be  of  parties  only  in 
the  higher  sense,  in  that  sense  in  which  they  are 
necessary  to  the  welfare  of  a  free  state,  when  men 
unite  to  forward  great  principles,  which,  rooted  back 
in  eternal  laws,  reach  forward  toward  ages  yet  to 
come.  Let  us  cultivate  that  nobler  ambition,  which, 
if  it  is  conscious  of  high  and  splendid  qualities,  seeks 
place  and  power  to  be  of  use  to  the  commonwealth, 
or  if  modestly  claimant  of  good  intentions  only,  will 
consent  to  wait  and  serve  in  any  ever  so  humble 
position,  so  that  public  good  is  achieved  and  the 
best  interests  of  universal  man  advanced. 

REMARKS  OF  MR.  MURPHY. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  AND  SENATORS  :  No  event  has 
ever  so  shocked  the  sensibilities  of  the  community 
as  the  tragical  occurrence  over  which  we  are  now 
assembled  to  mourn.  The  high  position  of  the  de- 
parted President,  his  kindly  virtues,  the  manner  of 


MEMORY  OF   PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  81 

his  death,  and  the  circumstances  of  the  country,  have 
all  combined  to  evoke  an  universal  cry  of  lamenta- 
tion and  woe.  Appalled  in  the  face  of  the  greatest 
calamity  that  could  befall  the  nation,  and,  as  if 
touched  by  one  common  chord  of  sympathy,  the 
arm  of  industry  is  suddenly  paralyzed,  the  marts 
of  commerce  are  deserted,  and  courts  and  legis- 
lative assemblies  suspend  their  deliberations.  In 
this  general  demonstration  of  our  loss  there  is  no 
division,  no  sect,  no  party,  among  us.  ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN  belonged  to  the  country ;  he  was  the  con- 
stitutional head  of  the  whole  republic.  And  while 
you,  who  assisted  in  elevating  him  to  his  high  office, 
pour  forth  your  sorrow,  we,  who  have  no  such  rela- 
tion, seeing  in  his  violated  person  wounds  inflicted 
on  the  Constitution,  on  the  majesty  of  the  people 
and  on  the  American  character,  behold  in  him  the 
martyr  to  freedom  and  good  order,  and  with  you 
approach  the  bier,  which  this  day  bears  his  lifeless 
form,  to  deck  it  with  funereal  wreaths,  and  to  bedew 
it  with  our  tears. 

It  adds  doubly  to  the  poignancy  of  the  public 
grief  that  this  misfortune  deprives  us  of  his  services 
at  a  moment  when  all  eyes  and  hearts  were  turned 
toward  him  with  the  highest  hopes  and  expectations. 

The  rebellion,  which  for  years  had  been  draining  the 
11 


82  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

blood  and  treasure  of  the  nation,  which  had  threat- 
ened its  very  existence,  till  good  men  were  almost 
despairing,  had  been  crushed ;  and  he  had  intimated 
a  policy  toward  the  insurgents  calculated  to  reunite 
the  States  in  fraternal  bonds  as  well  as  in  political 
relations.  The  blessings  of  millions  of  people  were 
pouring  in  upon  him,  when  all  of  a  sudden  the  cup 
of  joy  and  gladness  is  turned  into  bitterness  and 
sorrow.  We  have  lost  Presidents  before  while  in 
office,  but  never  has  such  a  realizing  sense  of  their 
loss  been  felt  by  the  entire  community. 

It  was  in  the  relation  which  Mr.  LINCOLN  occupied 
to  this  civil  war  that  his  importance  is  seen.  He  was 
not,  in  the  common  acceptance  of  the  term,  a  great 
man ;  but  he  became  great  in  his  mastery  of  the 
greatest  subject  which  has  ever  engaged  the  atten- 
tion of  man.  For  four  long  and  weary  and  bloody 
years,  the  responsibilities  involving  the  perpetuity  of 
this  nation  and  the  salvation  of  republican  institu- 
tions upon  the  face  of  the  globe,  have  rested  upon 
his  shoulders.  Amid  jarring  opinions  and  interested 
advice  and  timid  counsels  and  weak  commanders, 
he  has  been  compelled  to  guide  the  shattered  ship  of 
state  through  a  civil  war,  unparalleled  in  its  violence 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  He  had  become  the  de- 
pository of  the  plans  and  views  of  all  the  parties 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  83 

and  interests  in  the  country,  and  had  opportunities 
to  know,  better  than  any  other  man,  the  temper  of 
the  people  north  and  south.  He  could  view  the 
whole  field,  and  he  did  it  with  the  comprehensive- 
ness of  a  statesman  who  disregards  sectional  feelings 
when  they  conflict  with  the  paramount  interests  of 
the  whole  body  of  the  people. 

Mr.  LINCOLN  was  conservative  by  nature  and  by 
position.  I  knew  him  as  I  know  you,  Senators,  whom 
I  have  met  in  the  performance  of  duties  here,  having 
served  with  him  in  the  councils  of  the  nation  while 
he  was  in  Congress.  Genial  and  kind  hearted,  gener- 
ous impulses  were  the  law  of  his  nature.  I  have 
never  seen  him  since  our  official  connection ;  but 
when  a  few  months  ago  I  took  occasion  to  address 
him  in  behalf  of  a  case  of  suffering  humanity,  I 
received  a  prompt  and  favorable  reply,  showing  not 
only  that  neither  time  nor  distance  nor  difference 
of  political  sentiment  had  affected  past  friendship, 
but  that  his  severer  duties  to  the  country  did  not 
prevent  him  from  considering  the  claims  of  indi- 
viduals upon  his  merciful  prerogative. 

He  has  gone,  however,  from  us  forever,  and  his 
spirit  is  with  the  God  who  gave  it.  Let  us  improve 
the  lesson  of  his  loss  by  imitating  his  example  of 
devotion  to  our  common  country.  That  country 


84  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

survives,  with  its  varied  interests  and  its  greatness 
undiminished — the  hope  of  mankind  and  the  dread 
of  despots  only.  It  has  undergone  a  trial  which  no 
popular  government  has  ever  passed  through  safely. 
Let  us  show  ourselves  in  history  the  great  exception. 
Military  power  must  now  yield  to  the  civil  authority, 
and  law  and  order  resume  their  wonted  sway.  The 
deflections  from  the  proper  order  of  things,  conse- 
quent upon  our  internal  disorders,  forgotten,  we  may 
then  say : 

Her  heroes  slain,  awhile  Columbia  mourned ; 
But,  crowned  with  laurels,  Liberty  returned. 

REMARKS  OF  MR.  COOK. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  A  great  and  good  man  is  dead. 
The  people  mourn.  The  chosen  head  of  this  great 
nation  has  been  stricken  down  in  the  zenith  of  his 
usefulness,  and  this,  too,  at  the  very  time  when  his 
greatness  and  goodness  were  being  fully  developed, 
in  his,  I  think  I  can  say,  successful  efforts  to  restore 
peace  and  consequent  prosperity  to  our  bleeding 
nation. 

Not  struck  down  by  any  of  the  usual  agencies 
through  which  the  dark  angel  of  death  seizes  his 
victim,  but  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin.  Humanity 
shudders  at  the  deed,  and  as  the  telegraph  conveys 


MEMORY  OF   PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  85 

the  terrible  catastrophe  to  the  people,  the  national 
pulse  ceases  for  a  moment  to  beat.  The  fiendishness 
of  fratricidal  Cain  stands  eclipsed  by  the  monstrosity 
of  the  act. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  President  of  these  United 
States,  was  assassinated  at  Ford's  Theatre,  in  the 
city  of  Washington,  on  the  evening  of  the  14th  of 
this  month,  and  the  assassin  leaps  from  the  presence 
of  his  murdered  victim  upon  the  stage,  shouting  "  Sic 
semper  tyrannis" 

Thus,  if  it  were  possible  to  add  additional  horror 
to  the  scene  in  applying  this  motto  to  the  dying  Pres- 
ident, he  uttered  a  lie  whose  depth  is  so  deep  as  to 
be  unfathomable,  whose  width  is  so  wide  as  to  be 
immeasurable. 

ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  a  tyrant !  Why,  Mr.  President, 
if  he  failed  in  his  duty  in  any  one  particular,  it  was 
that  during  this  terrible  rebellion,  which  began  at 
the  moment  he  assumed  the  responsibility  of  Chief 
Magistrate  of  the  United  States,  he  tempered  justice 
with  too  much  mercy.  Sir,  there  was  hardly  a  day 
passed  that  we  did  not  see  in  the  public  prints  notices 
of  commutation  and  pardons  of  the  sentences  of 
both  civil  and  military  courts,  passed  upon  offenders 
against  the  majesty  of  the  law. 

There  was  one  prominent  trait  in  the  character  of 


86  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

the  late  President  that  stood  in  front  of  all  others. 
It  was  that  goodness  of  heart,  that  kindness  of  spirit, 
toward  the  errors  of  humanity,  that  almost  appeared  to 
look  upon  crime  as  seen  by  other  eyes,  as  an  offense 
which  need  simply  to  be  repented  of  to  be  forgiven. 

I  stand  not  here  to  eulogize  the  late  President. 
Acts  are  enduring  memorials  of  men,  words  are 
evanescent.  But  when  the  history  of  this  bloody 
rebellion  is  truthfully  written,  the  world  will  say  that 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN'S  name  and  fame  shall  stand  side 
by  side  with  that  of  WASHINGTON,  the  Father  of  his 
country,  as  the-preserver  and  protector  of  the  glori- 
ous inheritance  bequeathed  to  this  people  by  our 
forefathers.  And  like  him,  not  stupendously  great 
in  any  one  characteristic  quality,  but  with  an  intel- 
lectual power  so  well  balanced  for  the  position  which 
he  occupied,  as  to  master  and  use  to  the  best  advant- 
age for  his  bleeding  country,  every  emergency  that 
arose  during  this  unhappy  rebellion. 

It  is  useless  to  speculate  upon  the  motives  that  led 
the  assassin  to  the  commission  of  this  deed,  as  well 
as  to  undertake  to  fathom  the  causes  that  led  to  the 
attempt  upon  the  life  of  Mr.  SEWARD,  Secretary  of 
State. 

There  appears  but  one  possible  reason  for  this 
double  assassination,  and  in  my  opinion  it  was  an 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  87 

attempt  to  strike  down  the  efficiency  of  the  adminis- 
tration to  reconstruct  and  unite  the  discordant  ele- 
ments, that  are  now  almost  destroying  our  unhappy 
country. 

This  double  assassination,  executed  at  the  same 
time  and  at  different  localities  (although  we  have 
hopes  that  the  life  of  Secretary  SEWARD  may  be 
saved  and  his  usefulness  unimpaired),  stands  before 
the  world  without  a  parallel  or  example  in  the  annals 
of  history. 

We  know  that  rulers  of  nations  have  been  assas- 
sinated while  at  the  very  acme  of  their  power.    We 
also  know  that  they  were  rulers  by  the  so-called 
"divine  right  of  kings,"  or  by  force  of  arms  over  • 
their  subjects. 

They  exercised  individually  supreme  power  over  the 
life,  liberty  and  happiness  of  their  people,  governed 
in  their  action  toward  them  only  by  whim,  caprice 
or  prejudice.  Under  such  a  despotism,  oppression 
may  have  become  so  unendurable  and  intolerable  (as 
in  the  case  of  the  reign  of  terror  of  Eobespierre  in 
France),  that  assassination  might  almost  become 
justifiable,  as  the  only  way  to  rid  the  world  of  a 
monster  in  human  form. 

But  that  assassination  should  raise  itself  to  a  suc- 
cessful issue  in  a  government  like  ours,  where  all 


LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 


rulers  are  chosen  by  the  people  themselves,  with 
entire  power  to  change  those  rulers  when  they  become 
obnoxious  to  the  governed,  from  any  cause  whatever, 
and  that,  too,  at  short  and  stated  periods,  is  a  fact  that 
sets  at  defiance  the  teachings  of  experience,  and,  as  I 
have  before  said,  stands  out  beyond  a  parallel  or  an 
example. 

It  exhibits  a  depravity  in  human  nature  that  must 
produce  a  degree  of  humiliation  upon  every  mind, 
that  an  individual  man  can  so  pervert  the  ends  and 
aims  of  his  existence  as  to  make  him  a  fit  companion 
for  the  father  of  all  evil. 

Mr.  President,  thank  God  that  the  foundations  of 
our  Eepublic  are  laid  so  strong  and  deep,  by  the 
wisdom  of  our  forefathers,  that  they  are  beyond 
reach  of  the  bowie  knife  or  the  pistol  of  the  assassin. 
The  government  still  "lives,  moves  and  has  a  being." 
Neither  are  its  powers  or  purposes  changed  by  this 
sad  event. 

Although  this  terrible  catastrophe  has  placed  the 
supreme  power  of  the  nation  in  other  hands  than 
those  of  the  lamented  LINCOLN,  who  now  receives 
this  power  is  one,  also,  chosen  by  the  people  to  meet 
precisely  the  present  condition  of  the  nation.  I  have 
entire  faith  that  he  who  has  now  entered  upon  the 
arduous  duties  of  Chief  Magistrate  of  these  United 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  89 

States,  guided  by  the  experience  shed  upon  his  path 
by  the  acts  of  the  late  President  and  his  advisers, 
with  the  assistance  of  that  Providence  which  watches 
over  the  affairs  of  nations  as  well  as  men,  will  con- 
duct our  country  to  peace,  and  to  that  prosperity 
which  always  follows  in  her  train. 

Just  four  years  ago  the  attempt  was  made  to 
assassinate  our  nationality.  That  attempt  has  now 
finally  culminated  in  the  cold-blooded  murder  of 
the  chosen  chief  of  this  nation ;  and  to  the  long 
list  of  illustrious  dead,  who  have  laid  their  lives 
upon  the  altar  of  their  country's  liberties,  is  now 
to  be  added  the  name  of  the  martyred  ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN. 

REMARKS  OF  MR.  ANDREWS. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  We  stand  beside  an  open  grave, 
a  grave  yawning  and  importunate  for  all  that  remains 
of  him  who,  a  few  hours  ago,  was  the  embodiment  of 
much  of  the  history  and  still  more  of  the  hopes  of  this 
nation.  Humble  in  his  origin,  gentle  in  his  nature, 
firm  in  his  resolve,  merciful  in  his  disposition,  placa- 
ble in  his  temper,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  had  proved  a 
wise,  skillful  and  successful  pilot  through  the  terrible 
storm  of  passion  and  civil  war,  which,  for  four  long 
years,  had  jeoparded  the  ship  of  state.  At  the  ino- 

12 


90  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO   THE 

ment  when  peace  is  descried ;  ainid  salutes  and 
streaming  banners  and  joyous  acclamations,  he  is 
stricken  by  the  fell  hand  of  an  assassin  ;  and  to-day 
funereal  drapery,  and  lowered  flags,  and  the  measured, 
mournful  cadence  of  ordnance  attest,  but,  oh !  how 
feebly !  the  grief  of  a  whole  people. 

The  remarkable  self-control  of  Mr.  LINCOLN  was 
an  element  in  his  character  which  contributed  largely 
to  his  success.  The  wisest  of  men  has  said  that  "  He 
that  is  slow  to  anger  is  better  than  the  mighty,  and 
he  that  ruleth  his  spirit  than  he  that  taketh  a  city." 
The  waves  of  faction  and  the  tumult  of  civil  war 
beat  wildly  and  fiercely  about  him,  yet  his  serenity 
was  never  disturbed.  Anxiety  might  cloud  his  brow, 
doubt  and  apprehension  oppress  his  heart,  but  his 
calm  judgment  and  clear  perceptions  were  never 
swayed  or  obscured.  There  was  true  greatness. 

Upon  the  occurrence  of  sudden  and  great  national 
calamities,  man  instinctively  seizes  the  lamp  of 
history  and  searches  the  dim  aisles  of  the  past  to 
find  a  parallel  or  precedent,  and  then  by  the  aid  of 
his  reflective  faculties  strive  to  throw  that  light  into 
the  dark  vista  of  the  future,  that  he  may  divine  some- 
thing of  that  which  is  reserved  for  him. 

In  1584,  another  republic  was  smitten  with  a  grief 
like  ours.  The  Prince  of  Orange,  the  father  of  the 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  91 

Dutch  Kepublic,  in  the  maturity  of  his  years,  in 
the  hour  when  his  country  was  emerging  from  civil 
strife,  in  the  presence  of  his  wife,  was  shot  to  death 
by  an  assassin.  Of  the  condition  of  his  country,  and 
of  the  value  of  his  life  to  her,  we  may  judge  when 
the  historian  declares  that,  while  William  lived,  "not- 
withstanding the  spirit  of  faction  and  the  blight  of  a 
long  civil  war,  there  was  at  least  one  country,  or  the 
hope  of  a  country,  one  strong  heart,  one  guiding 
head,  for  the  patriotic  party  throughout  the  land." 
These  words  might  well  have  been  said  of  him  whom 
we  lament  to-day. 

In  many  personal  characteristics  there  was  a 
marked  resemblance  between  the  great  Prince  and 
the  great  President.  I  may  be  pardoned  for  alluding 
to  one.  The  historian  tells  us  that,  "  in  the  darkest 
hours  of  his  country's  trial,  he  affected  a  serenity 
which  he  was  far  from  feeling,  so  that  his  apparent 
gaiety,  at  momentous  epochs,  was  even  censured  by 
dullards,  who  could  not  comprehend  its  philosophy, 
nor  applaud  the  flippancy  of  William  the  Silent." 

The  Dutch  Republic  survived  its  mighty  founder 
for  two  hundred  years.  Nor  will  this  Eepublic  fail 
or  falter  because  of  any  man,  however  gifted  or 
beloved.  Our  tearful  eyes,  looking  beyond  the  nar- 
row tomb  of  our  dear  President,  see  a  resplendent 


92  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

future  for  our  country,  and  we,  with  humble  faith, 
exclaim,  in  the  language  of  Israel's  king,  "  God  is  in 
the  midst  of  her,  she  shall  not  be  moved ;  God  shall 
help  her  and  that  right  early." 

REMARKS  OF  MR.  WHITE. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  Until  the  last  breath  leaves  the 
last  citizen  of  this  republic,  two  days  shall  be  vividly 
remembered  —  the  day  of  unsuccessful  liberticide, 
which  began  this  rebellion  j  the  day  of  too  successful 
parricide  which  ended  it. 

But,  between  those  two  days,  what  a  tremendous 
unfolding  of  history  !  Day  and  night,  as  from  some 
mighty  loom  driven  by  divine  forces,  has  come  forth 
this  wondrous  web  of  events  which  we  now  see  com- 
pleted—  its  warp  the  thoughts  and  acts  of  states- 
manship —  its  woof  the  thoughts  and  acts  of  general- 
ship. And  as  it  has  steadily  rolled  forth,  like  "  some 
storied  tapestry"  from  "  looms  of  Arras  orOambray," 
it  has  revealed,  day  by  day,  week  by  week,  wrought 
into  its  texture,  such  scenes  as  the  world  never 
dreamed.  There  stand  deeds  of  patriotism,  and 
deeds  of  rebellion ;  devoted  acts,  and  intriguing  acts. 
One  week  and  it  is  crimsoned  with  our  best  blood ; 
another,  and  it  is  blackened  with  the  vilest  treason. 
At  one  moment  we  have  seemed  to  see  a  defined 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  93 

purpose ;  the  next,  and  all  is  darkness  and  confusion. 
But  at  last  the  work  is  complete ;  all  is  revealed ;  all 
is  part  of  one  great  scene,  which  all  men  understand, 
which  all  men  may  read  and  understand ;  nay,  which 
all  men  shall  read  and  understand. 

It  is  the  representation  of  a  nation  regenerated,  of 
its  rise  above  deadly  theories,  of  its  triumph  over 
deadly  practices,  of  its  salvation  from  deadly  systems. 

But  through  all,  from  that  first  sad  day  to  the  day 
of  joy  unspeakable  over  liberty  saved  and  nationality 
established,  through  the  generalship  and  statesman- 
ship, through  the  trials  of  blood  and  the  trials  of 
treason,  wrought  into  all  its  texture,  in  and  out 
through  all  its  meshes,  binding  all  together,  brighter 
than  all,  stronger  than  all,  receiving  lustre  from  all 
victories,  and  casting  lustre  upon  all  defeats,  runs  a 
thread  and  strand  of  pure  gold,  the  character  of 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 

A  character  this  was,  of  pure  intent,  of  high  faith, 
of  earnestness,  of  kindliness,  manliness,  godliness. 

And  now  this  great  picture  was  finished,  union, 
constitutionality,  nationality,  liberty  everywhere 
triumphant ;  and  by  stalwart  blows  from  the  swords 
of  our  soldiers,  the  mighty  fabric  was  detached, 
and  as  a  separate  history,  displayed,  to  the  joy  of 
all  who  shall  ever  love  truth  and  its  triumphs. 


94  LEGISLATIVE   HONORS  TO   THE 

We  had  hoped,  oh,  how  fondly !  we  had  expected, 
oh,  how  naturally !  that  this  same  golden  thread  of 
character,  so  pure,  so  strong,  was  to  continue  through 
time's  next  great  fabric  of  four  years,  to  enrich  it,  to 
beautify  it,  to  purify  it.  Alas,  it  was  not  so  to  be. 
Amid  the  rejoicings  at  great  national  triumphs,  this 
precious  thread  of  existence  is  cut  in  a  moment,  and 
by  the  hand  of  an  assassin.  What  was  ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN,  to  all  appearance  lies  to-day  at  the  mouth 
of  the  tomb,  a  poor  lump  of  chilled  brain  and  with- 
ered muscle.  The  greatest  series  of  national  crimes 
ever  known,  begun  four  years  ago  by  liberticide,  are 
fitly  ended  by  parricide. 

The  nation  may  well  be  sad.  Never  was  ruler 
mourned  as  this  ruler.  It  was  given  me,  once,  sir,  to 
stand  in  the  great  capital  of  a  great  empire,  when,  in 
midst  of  a  terrible  war,  the  autocrat  of  seventy 
millions  was  suddenly  stricken  by  death.  But 
though  nobles  draped  themselves  in  sables,  and 
dames  of  high  degree  wore  widow's  weeds  for  half  a 
year,  it  was  not  like  this  mourning,  which  drapes  all 
in  woe,  and  starts  tears  in  the  eyes  of  men  whose 
pride  is  their  stoicism. 

And  we  stood  by  when,  with  roll  of  cannon,  and 
chanting  of  choristers  and  prayers  of  prelates,  the 
monarch  was  wrapped  in  his  shroud  of  gold  thread 


MEMORY  OP  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  95 

and  laid  in  the  tomb  of  his  fathers ;  but  that  was  not 
like  this  tender  love  of  millions  which  deposits  this 
martyr,  oh,  how  lovingly,  in  his  lowly  grave. 

And  yet,  though  all  this  mourning,  let  us  not 
yield  for  one  moment  to  despair.  Kever  have  we 
had  more  to  hope.  It  is  a  remark  so  common  as 
now  to  be  trite,  that  this  history  of  four  years  shows 
everywhere  traces  of  a  divine  guidance.  You 
hear  that  assertion  constantly  from  lips  little  given 
to  moralizing  or  utterance  of  religious  sentiments. 
But  if  this  be  true  of  the  history  of  these  events,  it  is 
even  more  true  of  the  biography  of  this  man  called 
to  take  lead  in  these  events. 

Look  at  his  birth,  among  the  humblest ;  his  cradle 
rocked  and  crooned  over  by  those  whom  he  was  to 
deliver ;  look  at  his  boyhood,  passed  with  hardly  any 
.education,  in  a  semi-barbarous  society,  but  despite  all 
that,  he  preserved  every  fine  fibre  of  his  nature ;  look 
at  his  youth  when  on  those  vast  rivers  of  the  west  he 
became  the  companion  and  fellow  workman  of  men 
whose  disregard  of  all  laws,  human  and  divine, 
is  a  proverb,  and  from  whose  fellowship  he  emerges 
uucontamiuated,  and  with  a  deep  respect  for  law  and 
order ;  look  at  him,  as  a  young  man,  entering  the 
noble  profession  of  the  law,  avoiding  that  temptation 
which  blights  so  much  talent,  the  temptation  to  lead 


96  LEGISLATIVE   HONORS  TO  THE 

the  life  of  the  trickster  and  the  pettifogger  ;  look  at 
him  in  full  manhood,  when  all,  far  and  near,  sponta- 
neously have  prefixed  to  his  name  the  title  of  "  The 
Honest ; "  look  at  him  in  the  bighest  of  earthly  seats, 
kindly,  and  great,  and  firm,  while  turbulence  and 
intrigue  seethe  and  surge  around  him. 

Sir,  our  friend  from  the  twenty-sixth  district  (Mr. 
FOLGER)  has  given  us  fitting  words  from  him  who 
"  soared  above  the  Aonian  Mount."  I,  too,  seemed 
to  hear  the  words  of  liberty-loving  MILTON.  His 
prophetic  sight  seemed  to  have  reached  our  late 
President,  when  he  put  words  upon  the  lips  of  the 
chorus,  viewing  Samson  Agonistes : 

O,  how  comely  it  is,  and  how  reviving 

To  the  spirits  of  just  men  long  oppressed, 

When  God  into  the  hands  of  their  deliverer 

Puts  strength  to  quell  the  mighty  of  the  earth  —  the  oppressor, 

The  brute  and  boisterous  force  of  violent  men. 

*  *  *  *  *  * 

He  all  their  ammunition 

And  feats  of  war  defeats, 

With  plain,  heroic  magnitude  of  mind, 

And  with  celestial  vigor  armed. 

Look,  too,  at  this  man,  who,  having  done  in  four 
years  what  mightiest  monarchs  have  failed  to  do  in 
decades  of  years,  with  kindly  expressions  toward 
the  vanquished,  risking  his  popularity  to  shield 
them — he  receives  the  blow  of  the  assassin. 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  97 

Can  it  be  that  the  Omnipotent  Hand  which  shaped 
these  events  so  wonderfully,  which  prepared  this  man 
so  wonderfully,  has  permitted  his  martyrdom,  with- 
out some  wise  purpose  ? 

Our  friend,  the  Senator  from  the  twentieth  dis- 
trict (Mr.  ANDREWS),  has  presented  a  striking  his- 
torical parallel.  Let  me  for  a  moment  direct  you  to 
another.  When  that  great  and  good  monarch, 
Henry  the  Fourth,  of  France,  had  led  his  nation 
through  their  terrible  civil  wars  of  the  latter  part  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  when  peace  was  restored, 
when  all  mankind  was  loving  and  praising  him  who 
was  before  so  reviled  and  hated,  he  was  suddenly 
struck  dead  by  the  dagger  of  Eavaillac. 

Deep,  indeed,  was  the  mourning.  Patriots  dis- 
trusted the  Almighty.  Anarchy  set  in.  But  soon, 
from  the  midst  of  the  very  classes  who  had  fought 
so  long  and  so  bitterly — from  the  nobility  and  the 
clergy — came  that  great  statesman,  the  Cardinal 
Duke  of  Eichelieu,  no  longer  kindly  like  his  prede- 
cessor, but  stern,  filled  with  the  idea  that  justice  to 
individuals  is  the  highest  mercy  to  States.  He  it 
was  who  grasped  rebellion  and  ended  it.  The  assas- 
sin who  deprived  the  nation  of  a  ruler  kind  and 
gentle,  gave  the  nation  a  ruler  stern  and  inflexible. 

Senators,  let  us  here  and  now  respond  to  the 

13 


98  LEGISLATIVE   HONORS   TO   THE 

appeal  of  our  associate  (Mr.  FOLGER),  who  has  called 
upon  us  to  rise  to  higher  phases  of  patriotic  feeling. 
Over  this,  our  great  martyr,  so  much  loved,  so  much 
revered,  let  hand  grasp  hand,  let  heart  echo  heart, 
let  the  vow  arise  that  the  nation  shall  be  saved.  Let 
us  each  to  each,  and  all  to  all,  give  pledge  that  we 
will  labor  more  and  more  to  make  this  nation  worthy 
of  those  two  great  forms  which  now  tower  above  it, 
WASHINGTON  and  LINCOLN. 

REMARKS  OF  MR.  BAILEY. 

The  thoughts  common  to  every  American  at  this 
solemn  moment,  have  already  found  such  expression 
as  human  powers  can  give  them.  The  resources  of 
language  have  been  exhausted.  The  pulpit  and  the 
press  have  spoken.  We  have  listened  here  to-day  to 
words  of  touching  pathos.  And  while  we  have  been 
so  occupied,  thousands  of  tongues  all  over  the  land 
have  given  utterance  to  the  nation's  sorrow. 

And  yet,  the  repetition  does  not  tire  us.  So  over- 
whelming is  this  calamity,  that  our  minds  reject  all 
other  subjects.  It  engrosses  every  faculty  of  our 
souls.  It  envelopes  us  with  a  dark  pall  that  shuts 
out  the  events  of  earth,  and  almost  the  light  of  hea- 
ven. Like  Rachel  mourning  for  her  children,  we 
refuse  to  be  comforted.  The  affairs  of  life,  moment- 


MEMORY   OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  99 

cms  as  some  of  them  are,  cannot  command  our 
attention.  The  future,  big  with  the  fate  of  ourselves 
and  of  our  children,  is  almost  unheeded.  We  have 
received  a  blow  which  shocks  and  bewilders  us. 
Had  an  earthquake  opened  its  jaws  and  devoured 
the  city  of  Washington  and  all  it  contained,  we 
could  hardly  have  been  more  appalled.  "  President 
LINCOLN  has  been  assassinated!"  No  living  Amer- 
ican can  ever  forget  his  sensations  when  that  terrible 
message  first  reached  him.  He  thought  himself  the 
victim  of  some  horrible  delusion,  which  yet  could  not 
be  shaken  off.  He  tried  to  believe  it  a  dream,  and 
struggled  to  awake  from  it.  But  turn  where  he 
would,  listen  to  whom  he  would,  his  eyes  and  ears 
met  only  repetitions  of  the  dreadful  announcement. 
And  yet  he  could  not  then  realize  the  truth,  and  he 
can  scarcely  do  so  now.  But  alas !  it  was  true. 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  was  indeed  no  more.  He  had 
fallen  a  victim  to  the  most  cowardly  and  fiendish 
murder  ever  perpetrated  on  earth  since  the  cruci- 
fixion. The  world  cannot  find,  in  the  vilest  passions 
ever  exhibited  by  mortal  man,  a  sufficient  incentive 
for  this  deed.  We  must  search  hell  itself,  and  dis- 
cover the  unmixed,  concentrated  depravity  of  devils, 
to  realize 

"  The  deep  damnation  of  this  taking  off." 


100  LEGISLATIVE   HONORS   TO   THE 

Oh  !  sir,  what  a  great,  unselfish,  loving  heart  was 
laid  in  death  by  the  hand  of  this  infamous  assassin ! 
A  heart  that  only  yearned  to  bless  and  save;  that 
would  not  willingly  inflict  suffering  upon  the  mean- 
est of  mankind ;  that  watched,  and  toiled,  and  prayed 
to  bring  back  to  peace  and  happiness,  those  who 
sought  the  nation's  life ;  that  could  feel  only  pity  and 
compassion,  when  vengeance  at  times  swelled  the 
souls  of  millions  of  our  countrymen. 

Not  that  Mr.  LINCOLN  was  a  mere  sentimentalist. 
No  man  comprehended  more  clearly  the  necessity 
6f  force  when  treason  was  at  work ;  and  no  man 
more  firmly  and  steadfastly  employed  it.  Again 
and  again  he  summoned  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
his  countrymen  to  the  field;  and  while  he  gazed 
with  sorrow  upon  the  carnage  which  followed,  he 
maintained  an  unalterable  determination  to  fight 
out  the  war  so  long  as  armed  resistance  was  made. 

There  were  traits  in  the  character  of  Mr.  LINCOLN 
upon  which  the  people  of  the  United  States,  for  all 
time  to  come,  will  love  to  dwell.  Some  of  these 
have  been  pointed  out  by  Senators  who  have  pre- 
ceded me.  His  honesty  of  purpose  and  devoted 
patriotism  will  never  again  be  denied.  If  they  ever 
have  been,  it  was  caused  by  the  excitement  of  party 
strife,  which,  so  far  as  Mr.  LINCOLN  is  concerned,  is 


MEMORY   OF   PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  101 

gone  forever.  This  great  national  affliction  has 
brought  us  all  together;  to-day,  at  least,  we  are  a 
band  of  brothers.  We  join  hands  over  his  grave, 
while  heart  throbs  to  heart. 

Sir,  I  have  studied  Mr.  LINCOLN  for  the  last  five 
years  as  I  never  did  any  other  man,  and  it  made  me 
his  enthusiastic  admirer.  If  there  were  time,  and  this 
were  a  proper  occasion,  I  should  dearly  love  to  speak 
of  him  as  I  feel.  But  I  must  not,  here  and  now.  I  beg 
leave,  in  no  spirit  of  controversy,  however,  to  dissent 
from  an  opinion  just  expressed,  that  he  was  not,  in 
the  highest  sense,  a  great  man.  I  think  he  was,  even 
intellectually,  one  of  the  greatest  men  ever  born 
upon  this  continent.  I  know  very  well  that  this 
is  not  the  general  sentiment.  His  awkwardness  of 
manner,  simplicity  of  speech,  quaintness  of  style, 
want  of  education  and  the  polish  it  gives ;  in  short, 
the  contrast  between  his  language  and  that  of  those 
whom  the  world  recognizes  as  model  men,  have  led 
to  the  common  conclusion  that  he  was  not,  in  the 
highest  sense,  a  great  man.  But  I  submit,  that  in 
the  exhibition  of  pure  intellectual  power,  he  has  had 
few  equals,  and  no  superiors  in  this  country.  I 
insist,  that  the  ability  to  grasp  a  great  subject  which 
agitates  the  nation,  and  which  bewilders  and  baffles 
the  wisest,  to  strip  it  of  all  mystery,  difficulty  and 


102  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

extraneous  matter,  and  place  it  before  the  people  in 
so  simple,  clear  and  strong  a  light  that  the  meanest 
capacity  understands  and  appreciates  it,  is  the  very 
best  test  of  intellectual  superiority.  And  this  ability 
Mr.  LINCOLN  possessed  to  a  greater  degree  than  any 
other  man  of  his  time.  The  world  will  yet  do  him 
justice  in  this  respect. 

But  he  is  gone.  His  great  work  of  putting  down 
the  rebellion  was  accomplished.  That  work  required 
the  highest  and  best  qualities  ever  vouchsafed  to 
man,  and  they  were  bestowed  upon  him.  Intem- 
perate zeal  and  wild  impetuosity  could  not  disturb 
him.  Sophistry  could  not  deceive  him.  The  clam- 
ors of  friends  and  the  threats  of  foes  alike  failed 
to  move  him.  Knowing  that  the  responsibility 
rested  upon  himself,  he  relied  only  upon  God  and 
the  conclusions  of  his  own  judgment.  Acknowledg- 
ing his  dependence  upon  the  people,  and  never 
acting  without  their  sanction,  he  yet  gave  direction 
to  popular  opinion,  and  led  it  to  the  desired  conclu- 
sions. He  had  finished  his  work,  although  ready, 
God  willing,  to  undertake  the  further  task  of  quiet- 
ing the  land  so  long  rent  by  civil  war.  He  had 
secured  the  respect  and  confidence,  if  not  the  love, 
of  all  his  loyal  countrymen.  Every  man  felt  that 
the  final  adjustment  of  our  difficulties  was  safe  in 


MEMORY    OF   PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  103 

his  hands.  But  he  has  been  taken  from  us.  We 
now  see  that  our  deliverance  is  not  to  come  from 
man,  but  from  the  Almighty  Euler  of  the  Universe. 
And  holding  fast  to  the  faith  which  He  has  taught 
us,  we  confidently  believe,  and  unhesitatingly  say, 
that  this  country  will  still  live. 

The  assassin  who  committed  this  foul  murder 
undoubtedly  expected  to  aid  the  cause  of  treason, 
but  he  only  hastened  its  extermination.  Whatever 
may  have  been  the  feelings  of  some  of  us  in  the 
past,  to-day  there  is  not  a  man  at  the  North  who 
would  not  smother  the  last  spark  of  the  infernal 
spirit  which  prompts  such  deeds.  These  rebels  have 
struck  down,  in  President  LINCOLN,  their  wisest, 
truest  and  most  powerful  friend.  Such  is  the  short- 
sightedness of  crime.  The  Eedeemer  of  the  world 
was  crucified  and  slain  by  the  very  men  he  yearned 
to  save. 

It  may  be,  that  it  was  necessary  to  permit  this 
exhibition  of  the  real  character  of  the  rebellion.  Its 
wantonness  and  general  wickedness  had  already 
been  seen,  but  the  utter  barbarism  and  savageness 
which  underlies  it,  was,  perhaps,  not  entirely  com- 
prehended. Notwithstanding  its  championship  of 
slavery,  its  attempt  to  destroy  free  government  from 
off  the  earth,  its  atrocious  treatment  of  prisoners, 


104  LEGISLATIVE   HONORS  TO   THE 

still,  the  innate  satanic  spirit  which  inspired  it  was 
not  realized.  Perhaps  it  was  necessary  that  this 
spirit  should  be  concentrated  into  a  single  act  of  suffi- 
cient atrocity  to  shock  the  world.  It  was  thus  seen 
in  this  murder.  Hereafter,  when  mankind  seek  to 
illustrate  the  lowest  depths  to  which  human  deprav- 
ity can  sink,  they  will  point  to  the  assassination  of 
President  LINCOLN. 

REMARKS  OF  MR.  LOW. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  We  have  lived  to  see  the  darkest 
day  in  American  history — the  memory  of  which 
appals  the  stoutest  heart  and  fills  our  land  with 
wailing  and  lamentation.  The  curtain  has  now 
arisen  upon  the  last  act  of  the  bloody  drama  in 
which  we  are  the  actors;  and  men  and  nations 
stand  aghast  in  bewilderment  and  horror.  A 
wicked  and  fiendish  rebellion — born  in  treason  and 
baptized  in  blood — has  culminated  in  murder  and 
assassination.  The  same  fell  spirit  which  fired 
upon  our  country's  flag,  which  drove  the  Southern 
Unionists  with  baying  blood-hounds  to  dens  and 
caverns;  which  tortured  with  slow  and  dreadful 
death  the  Union  soldiers  in  Southern  dungeons, 
and  butchered  captive  prisoners  upon  the  field  of 


MEMORY   OF   PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  105 

war — has  now  struck  down  the  friend  of  liberty,  the 
champion  of  the  oppressed. 

Our  loved  and  trusted  Chieftain  is  no  more — an 
American  President,  great  and  good  and  honored 
throughout  the  land,  is  stricken  down  by  the  hand  of 
violence  in  the  heyday  of  his  usefulness  and  in  the 
brilliant  dawning  of  his  triumphs. 

We  have  in  this  dread  struggle  offered  up  our 
brightest  jewels  upon  the  altar  of  our  country.  We 
have  given  our  fair-haired  boys  to  die  in  rebel  dun- 
geons. Our  bravest  and  our  best,  have  gone  down 
upon  the  gory  battle-field — and  now  the  costliest 
sacrifice  of  all — the  "foremost  man"  in  all  the  world 
is,  too,  a  victim  to  the  demon  spirit  which  has  filled 
our  land  with  orphans  and  crimsoned  its  soil  with 
blood. 

It  is  yet  too  early  to  estimate  our  loss  or  form  a 
just  conception  of  the  character  of  the  dead.  Since 
the  day  when  Egypt's  trembling  bondmen  followed 
their  deliverer  from  the  land  of  slavery,  there  has 
lived  no  mortal  man  whose  name  the  coming  millions 
will  shout  so  gladly  as  that  of  Liberty's  great  martyr, 
for  whom  we  mourn. 

Other  men  have  died  for  truth,  and  fallen  in  the 
cause  of  right;  other  rulers  have  battled  well  for 
freedom  and  marshaled  armies  against  the  tyrants 

14 


106  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO   THE 

of  the  world ;  but  it  was  reserved  for  this  champion  of 
human  liberty  to  have  fought  the  decisive  battle  for 
"  the  inalienable  rights  of  man,"  and  to  have  sanctified 
the  victory  by  his  immolation  upon  its  shrine. 

The  oppressed  have  lost  a  benefactor;  the  bond- 
men their  deliverer,  and  our  country  its  second  father. 
History  will  assign  no  second  place  to  the  name  of 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN.  High  up  upon  its  scroll,  above 
the  mighty  ones  and  conquerors  of  the  earth,  will 
his  be  written,  a  watchword  for  the  slave,  a  rally- 
ing cry  for  freemen,  the  terror  of  the  tyrant,  the  joy 
of  the  oppressed ;  NAPOLEON  will  be  forgotten  ; 
CJESAR  will  cease  to  be  remembered ;  CROMWELL 
will  be  known  no  more ;  but  far  down  through  the 
vista  of  coming  centuries,  till  the  sands  of  time  shall 
cease  to  run,  will  be  hailed  with  glad  acclaim  the 
memory  of  our  martyred  hero,  for  whom  the  people 
weep,  and  the  nations  mourn. 

But  our  country  must  not  die,  our  faith  in  God 
must  not  be  shaken.  The  same  kind  Providence 
which  led  our  way  through  storms  and  darkness,  and 
guided  our  armies  through  fire  and  blood,  will  not 
desert  us  now. 

Tyrant's  thrones  will  crumble  to  the  dust,  and 
trembling  despotisms  will  be  remembered  with  the 
hated  things  that  were ;  but  the  deep  foundations  of 


MEMORY  OF   PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  107 

our  nation's  liberties,  consecrated  by  her  children's 
blood,  are  destined  to  endure  while  nations  live.  To 
us  has  been  reserved  the  trial  which  is  to  test  the  power 
of  Liberty,  the  manhood  of  our  race ;  and  though 
bloody  is  the  pathway  and  terrible  the  ordeal,  the 
awful  responsibility  is  still  upon  us  and  must  be  met, 
a  mighty  destiny  still  wills  us  onward  and  bids  us 
faint  and  falter  not.  "Out  of  danger  must  safety 
come."  It  is  trial  that  gives  us  strength,  suffering 
that  gives  us  fortitude,  conflict  that  lends  us  cou- 
rage, blood  that  consecrates  the  cause  of  truth,  and 
patriot  martyrdom  that  gives  it  life  eternal. 

With  blinded  Justice  for  our  chart  and  compass, 
with  faith  in  God  and  love  to  man  to  guide  our 
hearts,  let  us  go  calmly  forward  and  finish  the  great 
work  that  God  has  destined  for  us. 

REMARKS  OF  MR.  WILLIAMS. 
Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  I  desire  to  mingle  my  sad  feelings 
in  the  expressions  of  regret  which  this  occasion  calls 
forth.  A  great  and  a  good  man  has  fallen ;  and  it 
always  seems  to  me  that  the  good  die  first.  Bad 
men  live,  but  the  good  fall  in  the  midst  of  their 
labors.  A  great  and  good  man,  a  nation's  President, 
has  suddenly  been  struck  down  by  the  hand  of  an 
assassin.  This  rebellion,  this  unholy  warfare,  costing 


108  LEGISLATIVE   HONORS  TO  THE 

as  much  as  it  has  in  the  blood,  the  heroic  devotion, 
of  loyal  and  patriotic  men ;  men  dying  on  the  battle- 
field; men  dying  in  hospitals;  men  who,  in  their 
last  breath,  have  cheered  the  country's  flag,  and  died 
with  a  blessing  on  their  lips  for  the  land  they  loved 
so  well ;  men  dying  in  prisons,  starved  by  more  than 
hellish  malignity ;  the  untold  suffering,  the  depriva- 
tion, both  at  home  and  in  the  army,  which  this 
rebellion  has  cost — the  whole  series  of  horrors  is 
outstripped  and  overshadowed  by  the  intelligence 
that  OUT  loved  President  lies  dead,  by  the  hand  of  an 
assassin. 

Although  he  did  not  live  to  fill  out  the  measure  of 
his  country's  glory,  yet  no  name  will  be  grander  in 
history  than  that  of  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN — none  truer, 
none  better.  Who  with  so  pure  a  heart,  who  with  so 
single  a  purpose,  who  with  so  inflexible  a  will  has 
conducted  this  war  as  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  ?  Of 
those  who  have  given  themselves  for  the  benefit  of 
mankind,  of  those  who  have  given  their  time  and 
their  li ves  for  the  elevation  of  their  race,  history  will 
record  no  name  that  has  accomplished  more  than 
he.  It  seems  as  though,  if  the  world  could  be 
governed  by  such  men  for  a  few  generations, 
freedom  would  be  advanced  and  the  welfare  of  the 
masses  promoted  to  a  degree  never  before  known. 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  109 

I  have  said  the  brave  and  good  die  first.  Witness 
BRODERICK,  almost  a  founder  of  an  empire  on  our 
western  shores,  killed  by  cold  blooded  assassination, 
although  according  to  the  supposed  and  miscalled 
laws  of  honor.  President  TAYLOR,  cut  off  in  the 
midst  of  his  usefulness,  and  when  a  nation  were 
looking  to  him  to  conduct  them  through  a  critical 
time.  President  HARRISON,  who,  in  the  entrance  of 
his  great  public  career,  succumbed  to  the  power 
of  the  fell  destroyer.  So  men  in  the  career  of  their 
usefulness  seem  cut  down.  The  evil  live. 

Yet  one  thing  must  be  remarked,  that,  although 
when  such  men  fall,  we,  their  countrymen,  look 
round  to  see  who  shall  lead  us  now,  in  whom  we  shall 
trust  our  hopes  and  our  destinies;  yet  we  always 
find  that  an  overruling  Providence  leads  us  on. 
God  still  protects  and  preserves  the  nation.  Although 
men  fall,  principles  live.  May  we  not  trust  that  He 
will  lead  us  through  the  evil  times  which  we  have 
fallen  upon,  through  our  affliction ;  and  although  our 
leader,  cut  down  like  Moses,  not  being  permitted  to 
enjoy  with  his  people  the  fruition  of  his  labors,  still 
the  nation  and  the  people,  and  the  cause  of  truth  and 
righteousness,  will  be  preserved  and  upheld  by  an 
overruling  Providence. 

I  have  not  forgotten  that  a  favored  son  of  !New 


110  LEGISLATIVE  HONOKS  TO  THE 

York,  an  honored,  a  loved  citizen  of  one  of  the 
counties  which  I  represent,  has  lain  at  the  point  of 
death  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin.  His  record,  one 
of  the  proudest  that  the  history  of  our  country  pre- 
sents, yet  pales  before  his  social  virtues.  He  exists 
in  the  love  of  the  people  of  this  State,  and  no  name 
will  stand  higher  when  the  history  of  this  rebellion 
is  written — nay,  even  now,  in  the  written  history  of 
this  crisis — than  his. 

But,  Mr.  President,  it  is  not  for  me  to  pronounce 
their  eulogy.  History  will  pronounce  it — the  untold 
millions  of  this  and  future  ages  will  bear  that  history 
in  their  hearts,  where  forever  will  live  the  names 
united  of  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN  and  WILLIAM  H. 
SEWARD. 

And  the  son  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  standing 
high  in  the  estimation  of  the  public  for  his  worth, 
his  amiability  and  his  social  qualities,  was  nearly 
stricken  to  death  by  the  hand  of  the  same  assassin, 
in  his  efforts  to  protect  and  save  the  life  of  his  father. 

Prom  out  of  this  dread  deed  let  us  pluck  security 
to  the  future.  Turn  we  to  the  living.  Standing  here 
over  the  grave  of  LINCOLN,  dropping  tears  to  his 
ashes,  let  us  renew  our  allegiance  to  the  cause  of 
liberty.  It  is  right  that  from  us,  on  this  day,  should 
go  forth  to  the  people  whom  we  represent,  the  words 


MEMORY  OP  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  Ill 

of  courage  and  encouragement.  Be  true  to  your 
country  in  this  her  hour  of  trial.  Stand  fast  by  the 
powers  that  be.  Sustain  and  strengthen  the  govern- 
ment of  the  people.  It  is  our  only  salvation,  under 
the  mercy  and  the  guidance  of  a  good  God.  Let  us 
be  true  to  the  work  which  Providence  has  given  us 
to  perform,  to  help  work  out  the  great  destinies  of 
this  nation. 

No  cause  existed  for  the  death  of  our  chief.  Upon 
the  very  day  when  this  traitor's  hand  took  his  life, 
he  meditated  nothing  but  kindness  and  forgiveness 
to  our  enemies. 

To  think  that,  in  this  hour  of  his  generosity,  in 
triumph,  while  his  great  kind  heart  was  so  full  of 
sympathy  and  kindness  for  the  South,  that  he  should 
be  struck  down  by  the  assassin's  bullet,  while  he 
never  entertained  an  unkind  thought  towards  any 
one,  it  is  enough  to  make  the  nation  weep.  And  yet, 
the  cause  is  safe  for  which  martyrs  die.  It  is  the 
record  of  all  time,  that  the  death  of  martyrs  makes 
the  cause  secure.  It  is  as  much  the  case  as  that  the 
death  of  traitors  is  the  true  cement  of  liberty. 

Secession  assassins  have  drowned  the  voice  of 
mercy  in  behalf  of  secession  leaders,  in  the  universal 
public  voice  for  justice,  and  for  the  protection  of  the 
nation  in  its  appointed  rulers. 


112  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

For  his  own  personal  fame,  no  fitter  time,  perhaps, 
could  have  happened  for  his  death  than  now.  He 
dies  at  a  time  when  the  country  is  almost  restored  to 
peace  through  his  direction  of  public  affairs — when 
a  race  enslaved  for  years,  by  his  agency  becomes  free. 
There  needed  only  this  manner  of  his  death  to  canon- 
ize him  in  the  hearts  of  the  people.  His  name  will 
live  as  a  martyr  to  liberty,  to  the  freedom,  and  ad- 
vancement of  the  whole  race. 

Rest,  LINCOLN,  rest ! 
Rest  in  thy  laureled  tomb ! 
Laureled  by  the  freedom  of  a  race ! 
Thy  memory  shall  live  through  all  earth's  years ; 
And  thy  name  shall  excite  the  despots'  fears, 
While  o'er  thee  shall  fall  a  nation's  tears. 

But  while  we  contemplate  the  dead  body  of  our 
chief,  let  us  not  forget  the  duties  of  the  hour.  It  is 
fitting  that  we  here  renew  our  pledge  to  liberty.  It 
is  fitting  that,  standing  here,  over  the  remains  of 
our  honored  dead,  we  pledge  ourselves  anew  to  the 
cause  of  our  bleeding  country,  till  humanity  shall 
be  regenerated  in  the  advancing  steps  of  freedom, 
and  upon  this  land's  domain  no  slave  shall  breathe. 

From  out  of  this  cloud  of  gloom  and  despondency 
let  us  still  look  with  hope  to  the  future.  Our  domes- 
tic tranquility  is  still  undisturbed  by  this  dread  event. 
The  nation's  heart  never  beat  truer  to  the  nation's 


MEMORY  OP  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  113 

cause.  ANDREW  JOHNSON,  upon  whom  the  mantle 
of  our  leader  has  fallen,  is  a  true  and  tried  statesman, 
a  firm  and  devoted  patriot,  and  worthy  of  our  fullest 
confidence.  To  him  we  would  say,  "  Guide  thou  the 
ship  of  state  to  the  desired  haven  of  universal  free- 
dom and  emancipation,  to  which  it  is  now  directed." 

From  out  the  dusk  of  far  receding  centuries 

One  clear  prophetic  voice  of  warning  calls ; 
'Tis  this,  that  in  the  hour  of  trust  and  trial, 

He  who  falters,  falls ! 
Oh !  hearken  to  it,  thou  to-day,  who  holdest 

In  thy  hand  a  nation's  wavering  fate, 
And  be  thou  truest  of  the  true,  and  boldest 

Of  the  bold !    We  wait — 
We  wait,  thy  people,  patient  but  expectant ; 

And  the  far  nations,  tip-toe,  stand  agape, 
While  thou  dost  solve  the  problem  of  the  present, 

And  giv'st  the  future  certainty  and  shape ! 

REMARKS  OF  MR.  HAVENS. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT:  There  are  times  when  the  very 
effort  to  express  the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  our 
hearts  but  demonstrate  the  utter  inadequacy  of 
language  to  give  them  utterance. 

The  throbbing  heart  struggles  in  vain  to  relieve 
itself  from  its  pangs  of  woo  and  swelling  grief  by 
sympathetic  communication  with  the  outer  world. 

There  are  times  in  our  pilgrimage  on  earth,  when 
poor  finite  vision  can  discover  naught  but  darkness 

15 


114  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

and  desolation  in  the  decrees  of  Him  who  doeth  all 
things  well — when  an  impenetrable  gloom  seems  to 
shut  out  every  bright  and  cheering  prospect  in  the 
future,  and  in  spite  of  our  faith  in  God,  the  heart 
sinks  in  overwhelming  anguish  and  despair  under 
his  chastening  rod. 

Often  have  such  times  overtaken  us  in  the  rapid 
succession  of  great  events  during  the  last  four  years 
in  our  beloved  country. 

From  the  boundless  exultation  of  joy  at  the  tri- 
umph of  our  arms  over  the  enemies  of  our  country, 
the  nation  is  suddenly  thrown  into  tears  of  anguish 
and  grief  at  the  loss  of  him  whom  we  have  the 
second  time  chosen  to  lead  us  through  our  remaining 
conflicts  and  trials,  and  in  whose  wisdom,  firmness 
and  moderation  were  centered  our  brightest  hopes  and 
anticipations  of  the  future. 

The  nation  is  bereaved  of  its  father — its  guardian 
— its  protector — and  we  are  to-day  all  weeping, 
inconsolable  orphans. 

Having  led  us  through  nearly  all  our  difficulties, 
having  brought  us  under  the  divine  blessing  to  the 
banks  of  deliverance  from  the  bloody  conflicts  of 
civil  war,  and  gained  sight  of  the  bright  hill  tops 
of  that  land  of  rest,  of  freedom  and  universal  liberty 
which  we  all  hoped  soon  to  reach,  he  is  stricken  down 


MEMORY  OF   PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  115 

by  the  hand  of  the  assassin,  and  his  own  careworn, 
weary  spirit  has  found  its  rest  in  that  celestial  world 
— that  holier  land  where  war,  bloodshed  and  civil 
strife  are  never  known. 

Mr.  President,  I  cannot  say  more.  I  have  no  heart 
to  talk,  when  words  are  so  feeble  for  their  use  in 
bearing  the  messages  of  the  heart. 

Let  us  yield  an  humble  resignation  to  this  afflicting 
dispensation  of  an  all-wise  and  merciful  Providence. 
Let  us  still  cherish  hope  that  our  beloved  country 
will  survive  all  its  losses  and  afflictions,  and  that  the 
blood  of  our  noble  President  shall  cement  us  in  a 
more  perfect  Union,  and  inspire  our  hearts  with 
a  firmer  and  more  constant  devotion  to  the  support 
of  those  principles  of  free  government  for  which  we 
have  contended,  and  stimulate  us  to  renewed  efforts 
to  bring  our  country  out  of  its  turmoil  and  strife,  to 
an  honorable  and  abiding  peace,  and  place  it  upon 
that  highway  of  prosperity  among  the  nations  of 
earth,  to  accomplish  which  our  President  labored 
with  unremitting  and  successful  effort  up  to  the 
moment  when  the  sacrifice  of  his  life  sent  pain  and 
anguish  to  all  our  hearts. 


116  LEGISLATIVE  HONOES  TO  THE 


REMARKS  OF  MR.  STRONG. 

Ninety  years  ago  this  day,  in  the  streets  of  Lex- 
ington, the  sacrifice  of  patriot  life  began  for  the 
establishment  of  this  nation. 

Four  years  ago  this  day,  in  the  streets  of  Baltimore, 
the  blood  of  our  soldiers  was  shed  while  on  their  way 
to  the  protection  of  our  national  life. 

To-day  we  meet  in  solemn  sadness  to  mourn  a 
greater  calamity.  Another  martyr  has  been  sacri- 
ficed upon  the  altar  of  our  country.  The  blood  of 
our  murdered  President  stains  the  streets  of  our 
national  capital,  and  cries  aloud  for  justice.  Eighteen 
hundred  years  ago,  our  spiritual  salvation  was  made 
possible  by  the  death  of  the  Saviour.  His  death  did 
for  the  world  what  no  act  of  his  life  could  have 
accomplished.  The  death  of  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 
renders  it  not  only  possible,  but  has  already  cemented 
all  loyal  hearts  upon  one  common  purpose,  and  here- 
after the  spirit  of  Mercy  will  be  attended  with  a 
sterner  and  more  retributive  JUSTICE.  We  mourn, 
but  not  without  hope. 

Mr.  COLE  offered  the  following  resolution : 

Whereas,  It  is  represented  that  the  remains  of  the 
deceased  President,  ABRAHAM  LINCOLN,  will  pass 
through  the  principal  cities  on  the  line  of  the  Central 


MEMORY  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN.  117 

railroad,  and  that  a  brief  stop  will  be  made  in  this 
city;  therefore, 

Resolved  (if  the  Assembly  concur),  That  a  commit- 
tee consisting  of  three  from  the  Senate  and  five  from 
the  Assembly,  be  appointed  to  meet  those  having  the 
remains  of  the  deceased  in  charge,  at  the  city  of 
New  York,  and  accompany  them  through  the  State ; 
and  that  the  Lieutenant-Governor  be  added  to  said 
joint  committee  as  the  chairman  thereof. 

By  unanimous  consent  the  rule  was  suspended, 
when, 

The  President  put  the  question  whether  the  Senate 
would  agree  to  said  resolution,  and  it  was  decided 
in  the  affirmative. 

Ordered,  That  the  Clerk  deliver  said  resolution  to 
the  Assembly,  with  a  message  requesting  their  con- 
currence therein. 


FRIDAY,  April  21. 

The  Assembly  returned  the  resolution,  with  a  mes- 
sage that  they  have  passed  the  same,  with  the  follow- 
ing amendment : 

Insert  after  the  word  "  appointed  "  the  following : 
"  To  act  in  concert  with  the  Governor  of  the  State 
and  the  Commander  of  this  Division,  deputed  by  the 
War  Department  for  that  purpose,  and  with  the 


118  LEGISLATIVE  HONORS  TO  THE 

municipal  authorities  of  Albany  in  perfecting  ar- 
rangements for  the  reception  of  the  body  of  the 
deceased  President  at  the  Capital  of  the  State,  and,'* 
The  President  put  the  question  whether  the  Senate 
would  agree  to  concur  in  said  amendment,  and  it 
was  decided  in  the  affirmative. 

Ordered,  That  the  Clerk  return  said  resolution  to 
the  Assembly,  with  a  message  that  the  Senate  have 
concurred  in  their  amendment. 

Hon.  THOMAS  G.  ALVOBD,  Lieutenant-Governor, 
and  Messrs.  COLE,  LAIMBEER  and  CHRISTIE  were  an- 
nounced as  such  committee  on  behalf  of  the  Senate, 
and  Messrs.  WOOD,  VAN  BUREN,  COLLINS,  BURDITT 
and  INGRAHAM,  on  behalf  of  the  Assembly. 

The  Senate  took  a  recess. 


